MMA legend and UFC alum Mirko Cro Cop said that he was offered an opportunity to fight Francis Ngannou in May, though he didn't confirm the offer came from MVP. 

Ngannou will be fighting Philipe Lins in the co-main event of the MVP MMA card on May 16, which will be headlined by Ronda Rousey versus Gina Carano and stream on Netflix. There had also been talks of a fight between Ngannou and Rico Verhoeven, but Verhoeven will instead fight Oleksandr Usyk in boxing for the WBC Heavyweight title on May 23. 

Cro Cop said in an interview with "RMC Sport Combat" that he had been approached to fight Ngannou as well, and at the age of 51, retired as of 2019 having suffered a stroke, he laughed and could not take it serious. He said that he was approached by a "serious guy" who is the "CEO of one big organization." 

"I said, 'What do you mean, did you say fight? Did you use the word fight or did you use the word playing cards, chess, swimming, running? You mean fight?' ... I started laughing," he said. "If I had to fight now and they said make me a list from the worst to the best that you will fight, of course Francis Ngannou will be the last one that I fight."

Cro Cop jokingly said he would have asked for $500,000 for himself and $19.5 million to give to his mother for the expression on her face when he tells her about it. He said that the fight would have been at too short of notice in May anyway, and he didn't understand why so much money was being thrown about. 

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Rico Verhoeven explained why he turned down a bigger payday fighting Francis Ngannou in MMA for his upcoming WBC Heavyweight Championship boxing fight against Oleksandr Usyk in Egypt. 

Verhoeven left GLORY Kickboxing in 2025 much like Ngannou had left UFC in 2023, reigning as the unbeaten Heavyweight Champion. And he will be doing the same as Ngannou had in one regard, boxing the Lineal Heavyweight Champion Olekandr Usyk. 

The bout will be contested for the WBC Heavyweight Championship, pitting Verhoeven against the 24-0 multiple time and weight Undisputed World Champion at the Pyramids of Giza on May 23, in just his second professional boxing bout after debuting with a KO win in 2014.

But he could have been facing Ngannou in his second MMA bout instead, as he confirmed during Chael Sonnen's "Smash Cast" that a large offer had been tabled for them to fight. However, Verhoeven said that he had already verbally agreed to the Usyk fight with Turki Alalshikh. 

"My word is my everything," he said. "For me, that was the thing, like, I gave my word. There were multiple people that really put their necks out for me. So that's like Jason Statham, his excellency Turki Alalshikh, his right hand man Doctor Rakan [Al-Harty], and I was like this is what I got to do. The other option is amazing and they're paying an amazing amount of money but I gave these guys my word."

Ngannou is now due to fight Philipe Lins on the MVP MMA card headlined by Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano streaming on Netflix on May 16. It will be his first fight since beating Renan Fereira for the PFL Super Fights Heavyweight Championship in 2024. Verhoeven fought his one and only MMA bout with a first-round knockout win over Viktor Bogutzski in 2015.

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Former World's Strongest Man, Eddie Hall, has said he is looking to return to MMA for his second fight in the summer. 

The 2017 World's Strongest Man winner has spent his post-Strongman career exploring different competitive and combat sports, arm wrestling Brian Shaw to defeat in 2024 and losing a boxing fight against fellow former World's Strongest Man and The Mountain from "Game of Thrones," Thor Bjornsson, in 2022. 

He made his first foray into MMA with an unofficial Two-on-One spectacle against influencers Jamil and Jamel Neffati, knocking them both out to win, in 2024. And then last year he made his professional MMA debut against Mariusz Pudzianowski in Polish MMA promotion KSW, winning via ground-and-pound KO within the first 30 seconds of the bout. 

Now he says that he is shaping to return to the cage later this year, hoping to have a big-name fight in June and then once more before the end of the year. 

"I've got a big fight lined up later in the year, which I can't say just yet," Hall told "Duelbits" (via "Bloody Elbow"). "But keep your eyes peeled. I'm hoping to have a big-name fight in June and then again before the end of the year."

Hall named Dillon Danis as a potential opponent, specifically for his controversial nature in the sport. 

"I really want to fight Dillon Danis, he's got to be the most hated guy in MMA. I can't believe how arrogant he is. He says that he seriously thinks he can take me, but he's deluded. Danis is definitely running scared. If he wasn't, then he would've signed a contract to fight me by now."

Danis has a 3-0 record in MMA, fighting for Bellator and Misfits, and lost a boxing exhibition to Logan Paul after getting disqualified for unsportsmanlike conduct. He is due to wrestle former UFC Interim Welterweight Champion Colby Covington at RAF 07 later this month.

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