ONE boss says UFC heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou would get smoked in ONE Championship

ONE Championship founder and CEO Chatri Sityodtong is convinced that UFC heavyweight world champion Francis Ngannou cannot hang with his roster of heavyweight mixed martial artists.

Ngannou, 35, is notoriously known for his monstrous punching power with 12 of his 17 wins coming via stoppages. As talks of Ngannou possibly going to free agency emerged, Chatri showed little interest in signing the UFC champion to his promotion if it happens.

"I like Francis, but I think our heavyweights would smoke him. He is not just a complete fighter," said Chatri.

"If you ask any expert martial artist, if you look at Anatoly Malykhin (ONE interim heavyweight champ) for example; Russian pedigree wrestler, dynamite in his hands, much faster than Francis, much better ground game, black belt level, and he was also a submission champion in Europe."

According to Chatri, Ngannou is not as deadly on the mat as he is on his feet. He also noted that the UFC champ tends to leave himself wide open when he throws punches which would spell trouble for him should he compete in ONE.

"You look at Arjan Bhullar (ONE heavyweight champion) wrestling and boxing, you know Francis is not impressive on the ground," Chatri said.

"He's got big punches, but big looping punches. He is not as technical of a boxer as Anatoly or even Arjan. We have few other signings in the heavyweight division that we have not announced yet that are just killers."

—MGP, GMA News