Francis Ngannou and Renan Ferreira meet Saturday in the main event of PFL: Battle of the Giants at The Mayadeen in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.. Check out this quick breakdown of the matchup from MMA Junkie analyst Dan Tom.

Francis Ngannou vs Renan Ferreira PFL Super Fights preview

Ngannou (17-3) hasn’t competed in MMA since successfully defending the UFC heavyweight championship against Ciryl Gane in January 2022. Ngannou fought Tyson Fury and lost a split decision then followed up that sterling performance by taking on Anthony Joshua this past March, a fight in which he was dominated and lost by second-round knockout. In MMA, Ngannou has won six fights in a row dating back to November 2018, with five finishes during that span. … Ferreira (13-3) is the reigning 2023 PFL heavyweight champion after scoring three knockouts last season. Ferreira is coming off a 21-second dismantling of Bellator heavyweight champ Ryan Bader this past February.

Francis Ngannou vs Renan Ferreira expert pick, prediction

A PFL heavyweight tournament winner who is already accruing an insane highlight reel, Ferreira has proven to be an undeniable force in this weight class.

Not only is Ferreira massive in all the measurements that are the primary talking points for MMA pundits and gamblers alike, but the Brazilian can move surprisingly well for a man of his size and skills only appear to be improving since he moved shop stateside to train at American Top Team.

Although Ferreira’s ground game is still a work in progress, “Problema” has been seemingly upgrading his striking presence a la Alex Pereira imitations in the way in which he’s jabbing to the body and kicking at calves.

These weapons, of course, will be a potent two-way street when facing a fighter with some length parity who can also jab and low kick.

Enter Ngannou.

Jan 22, 2022; Anaheim, California, USA; Francis Ngannou (red gloves) before his fight against Ciryl Gane during UFC 270 at Honda Center. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

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Although MMA’s beloved lineal heavyweight champ was last seen hitting the canvas opposite Anthony Joshua in a boxing bout, it’s hard to question the life-changing power that Ngannou possesses.

From the lead-hand work he displayed against Stipe Miocic to the ability to adjust demonstrated against Ciryl Gane, Ngannou – with the help of bright minds like Eric Nicksick and company – will undoubtedly be the more flexible fighter from a tactical standpoint.

That said, for as natural as wrestling has seemingly come to Ngannou, it’s hard to know just how sharp those tools will be given everything that has been going on in his life (in and out of the ring).

For that reason, I can understand why anyone would be tempted to take a flier on the underdog in Ferreira.

Aside from heavyweight MMA being the most volatile sector of a volatile sport, Ferreira has legitimate counters that could hurt Ngannou that range from intercepting hooks to sneaky lifting knees. In fact, I believe that countering will be a key dynamic in this contest.

For as good as Ferreira’s offense is, the towering Brazilian is not beyond being countered. However, Ferreira is also at his best when he is the one with the striking initiative, so being able to take that away from the PFL tournament champion is also a big factor for those who have had success against him – – which is usually accomplished via a heavy wrestling-based attack.

I’m not sure if Ngannou can or will come out of the gate looking to wrestle, but I do suspect that those opportunities will naturally present themselves the longer this fight progresses. I also think that Ngannou’s countering presence will be a factor regarding winning or stalemating exchanges (as I wouldn’t be entirely shocked to see portions of this fight resemble the staring contest Ngannou had with Derrick Lewis).

Aggressive exchanges will be your usual heavyweight coin flip scenarios, but I can’t help but stick with Ngannou as far as a side goes.

My inherent bias toward Ngannou’s camp aside, Ngannou is the more proven product both on the feet and the floor.

I’ll be happy to see Ferreira get his guaranteed $2 million, but the official pick – so long as neither party immediately steals the other’s consciousness – is for Ngannou to drag things out a bit from a shaky start to find a ground-and-pound stoppage by the end of Round 3.

Francis Ngannou vs Renan Ferreira odds

Despite the oddsmakers opening the champion as a wider favorite, public money has come trickling in on the challenger, listing Ngannou (-310) and Ferreira (+225) via FanDuel.

Francis Ngannou vs. Renan Ferreira start time, how to watch

As the main event, Ngannou and Ferreira are expected to walk out to the cage at approximately 7 p.m. ET. The fight will stream on ESPN+ pay-per-view in the U.S. and DAZN pay-per-view internationally.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for PFL: Battle of the Giants.

David Helman

NFL Reporter

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Ralph Vacchiano

NFL Reporter

The first six games of the season for the Dallas Cowboys have felt more like six years. They’ve seen their Super Bowl dreams deteriorate. They’ve seen all their old problems resurface. They’ve even lost all three of their games at home.

And boy, do they ever need their bye week after their humiliating, 47-9 loss to the Detroit Lions last Sunday. They are beaten, bruised and their egos are battered. It is the perfect time for a rest.

But as they take their break, there’s no avoiding how bad the start to their season has been at times. Even their 3-0 start on the road has been propped up by games against the Browns (1-5) and Giants (2-4). It’s not all terrible. They are a .500 team and they’re only one game back in the NFC East race.

It just hasn’t been the championship-caliber start they expected in a season when their owner promised they were “all in.”

So, as the Cowboys take stock of where they are, FOX Sports NFL writers David Helman and Ralph Vacchiano will do that too, turning this week’s Cowboys corner into a not-quite-midseason report card. Here are the grades for some key people and the team overall:

Head Coach Mike McCarthy

Helman: I’ve been a longtime defender of McCarthy, because he’s brought a level of stability to Dallas that the organization hadn’t seen in decades. You can scoff at the playoff failures all you want, but 2021-23 was the first time the Cowboys had strung together three consecutive playoff appearances since they were winning championships in the 90s.

With all of that said, I’m just not sure what I’m supposed to defend six weeks into 2024. This team looks mostly abysmal on both sides of the ball, and a lot of that lies at McCarthy’s feet. He certainly deserves some blame for a shaky offensive performance, as he is in his second year as the playcaller. Everything looks hard for that unit. The Cowboys can’t run the ball, their receivers can’t generate separation and they can’t convert in the red zone. There are no “easy” buttons in this offense. Some of that might be on the front office for failing to upgrade the personnel, but a good playcaller can negate some of that. McCarthy has not.

McCarthy might not oversee the Dallas defense on a day-to-day level, but as the head coach, he still bears some responsibility for that side of the ball — which, yikes.

All in all, I’ll give McCarthy credit that the team is 3-3, and the Cowboys have managed to outplay some of the manageable teams on their schedule. That’s not the expectation or the standard in Dallas, though. 

Grade: D-

[Read more: Ranking NFL head coaches on the hot seat: Doug Pederson leads 7 at risk] 

Quarterback Dak Prescott

Vacchiano: The bar for the Cowboys quarterback is high because he’s got MVP talent. But he’s really treading a dangerous line this season because he knows he has to carry his one-dimensional team and he really doesn’t have a great array of weapons. The result is that he tends to force throws at times, which is a big reason why he’s got six interceptions so far and nearly had a few more.

 To be fair, he kind of has to force some of those throws. He needs to make things happen, because no one else on offense will. And the defenses are just waiting for him, because they certainly don’t respect the Dallas run game. But unfortunately for Prescott, he needs to recapture his MVP form for the Cowboys to be any good. That means he has to do better than the eight touchdown passes he’s thrown in his six starts, and cut down on his interceptions since he’s on pace for what would be a ridiculous (and career-high) 17. The turnovers, especially, have to stop, regardless of the circumstances. 

Grade: B

Owner/GM Jerry Jones

Vacchiano: He already got an F for the offseason when he passed on all the available running backs (including Derrick Henry, who got just $9 million guaranteed from Baltimore). Now he’s passed on available receivers like Davante Adams (traded to the Jets) and old friend Amari Cooper (traded to the Bills). Meanwhile, he continues to make the laughable excuse that they don’t have the salary cap room to add any outside help.

He does get credit for locking up Prescott and wide receiver CeeDee Lamb to long-term contract extensions and for his plan to lock up Micah Parsons in the offseason. That’s great for the future, but what about the now? Maybe he’ll wake up before the trading deadline. But for now, the only good thing Jones has done to help his team is not panic. He could become reactionary and fire McCarthy or something. But he at least is smart enough to recognize they’re just one game back in the NFC East and the division and conference are very ripe for the taking. He just has to do something to help them take it. 

Grade: D

Offense

Vacchiano: The Cowboys have the NFL’s 14th-ranked offense, and it’s only that high because of Prescott and Lamb. There is nothing else they have going for them. They are arguably the most one-dimensional team in the NFL. That is going to be a huge problem for them going forward.

 Granted, Prescott and Lamb are good enough to carry this offense a long way, especially if they get hot. But the offensive line is starting to show cracks, and that really won’t help a rushing attack that ranks dead last in the NFL, generating just 77.2 yards per game. That’s pathetic, but not surprising considering the Cowboys decided pairing Rico Dowdle with whatever is left of Ezekiel Elliott was somehow a good idea.

If they don’t develop (or find) a running game or at least a second option in the passing game, they are doomed to have a middling offense all year. 

Grade: B-

Mike McCarthy responds to ‘soft’ label for Cowboys following blowout loss to Lions

Defense

Helman: I’m going to give Mike Zimmer some credit for the factors here that are outside his control. For starters, injuries have been a real thing. Zimmer has yet to have both of his primary corners, Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland, available together for a game. That matters for the type of defenses he likes to run. Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence have both also been out now for two weeks, which makes life tough on the pass rush. Eric Kendricks also sat out of the debacle against Detroit.

That stuff does matter. It’s not a good enough of an excuse, though — not considering the depth of ineptitude we’ve seen to this point. The Cowboys were mostly healthy in Week 2 when the Saints ran over them to the tune of 190 yards, and it’s been that bad ever since. Consider this fun stat: In their three losses, their opponents have had 31 total possessions. They’ve scored on 20 of those 31 possessions, which means the Cowboys are allowing points 65% of the time their opponent touches the ball. The Saints and Lions both scored on every possession of the first half! Even if the Dallas offense was playing well, it’d be impossible to win games playing that way. They’re the worst run defense in the league and their pass defense doesn’t do much to offset that issue. It’s a brutal combination. They aren’t even getting takeaways to offset these problems, with just five on the year.

I’m not convinced it’s all Zimmer’s fault between injuries and a lack of personnel, but he also knew what he signed up for when he agreed to join on with a front office that doesn’t spend in free agency and a head coach who is in the last year of his contract. Even with all the variables, this level of execution just isn’t good enough from an NFL defense. 

Grade: F

Special Teams

Helman: Finally, something encouraging.

It might not count for much with all of the other issues, but Brandon Aubrey can officially stake his claim as the best kicker in football. The guy has been on an absolute heater, leading the league with 17 made field goals and just two misses on the year. Roughly half of those attempts have come from beyond 50 yards, with a mind-bending long of 65. It speaks to the Cowboys’ ineptitude on offense that Aubrey is routinely kicking from beyond the 35-yard line — but at least he’s justifying those decisions.

Aubrey’s ability to hit kicks from the logo means Bryan Anger hasn’t had to do as much work. The Cowboys’ punter has just 17 attempts this year, which is one of the lower totals in the league.

Add in the fact that KaVontae Turpin has been one of the league’s most dangerous returners in both the kick and punt game, and this is pretty much the only aspect of this Cowboys team worth feeling good about. 

Grade: A+

[Read more: ‘Steph Curry of kickers’: Why Cowboys’ Brandon Aubrey embraces Tom Brady’s comparison]

Overall

Vacchiano: A 3-3 record is OK. Being one game out of the division lead is OK, especially with 11 games still to go. In fact, for the most part, the Cowboys’ start to this season has been generally OK.

The problem is that they set their own bar higher than just OK. It’s not OK that they are so up and down in a year when they were so convinced that they had enough to make a Super Bowl run that they sat out the free-agent market. It’s not OK that coming off three straight 12-win seasons they somehow have to go 9-2 the rest of the way to do it again. And it’s not OK that they are 0-3 at home and two of the losses were by a combined score of 91-28. In fact, all three would have been blowouts if they hadn’t mounted a furious and futile late rally against the Ravens.

If they were a team starting over, or a perennial loser like the Jets, then sure, they could pop the champagne over this and get a mediocre grade. But the standard, as they say, is the standard. And they’re not meeting it right now. 

Grade: C

Helman: The record says they’re mediocre, but man this is one of the worst 3-3 teams I can remember watching. To illustrate my point, here’s a fun stat: there are four other 3-3 teams in the NFL right now. Those four teams have point differentials of +32, +16, 0 and -4. The Cowboys’ point differential is -42. They’re escaping by an average margin of 8 points in their wins and getting run out of the building by an average of 22 points in their losses.

So, to Ralph’s point, they’re certainly not meeting the expectation of reaching the playoffs and going beyond. But in addition, they just don’t look like a quality football team right now. Even their wins haven’t been something to get excited about.

The one bright spot is that they’ve done enough to stay in the conversation. They’re .500 and they do have a 1-0 record in the division, which isn’t a terrible place to be. But it’s going to take some serious soul-searching to right the ship. After this week off, it’s back-to-back road trips to San Francisco and Atlanta, followed by home games against Houston and Philadelphia. Then, another road trip to face the upstart Commanders. The next five opponents currently have a combined record of 19-10, and the Cowboys will be lucky to be favored in one of those games. The season’s not over, but it’s on the ropes. 

Grade: D

David Helman covers the NFL for FOX Sports and hosts the NFL on FOX podcast. He previously spent nine seasons covering the Cowboys for the team’s official website. In 2018, he won a regional Emmy for his role in producing “Dak Prescott: A Family Reunion” about the quarterback’s time at Mississippi State. Follow him on Twitter at @davidhelman_.

Ralph Vacchiano is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.

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ADXC 6 has a new main event for next week’s grappling show in Abu Dhabi.

The previously announced match between UFC bantamweight contender Umar Nurmagomedov and former Bellator champion Eduardo Dantas is off, and rising UFC star Raul Rosas Jr. has agreed to grapple ex-UFC fighter Muhammad Mokaev on seven days’ notice on Oct. 25.

The event will take place at the Mubadala Arena a day before the octagon returns to Abu Dhabi for UFC 308.

Rosas Jr. won three straight inside the octagon, including a rear-naked choke finish against Ricky Turcios. In his most recent appearance, the 20-year-old prospect defeated Aoriqileng via decision at UFC 306. His MMA record now stands at 10-1 with six submissions to his credit.

Mokaev went 12-0 as a professional MMA fighter — and 23-0 in amateur bouts — before parting ways with the UFC earlier this year despite a perfect 7-0 run under the company’s banner.

UFC CEO Dana White justified his decision citing “so much bad shit that happened behind the scenes” following his win over Manel Kape. Mokaev was re-signed by Brave CF shortly after, but has yet to book his first MMA fight back.

Umar Nurmagomedov criticizes Sean O’Malley for not showing a sense of urgency in his UFC 306 loss to Merab Dvalishvili.

O’Malley (18-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) dropped his bantamweight title to Dvalishvili (18-4 MMA, 11-2 UFC) by unanimous decision in the UFC 306 main event in September. O’Malley was out-grappled for the most part but was able to hurt Dvalishvili with a body kick at the end of the fight.

Nurmagomedov (18-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) thinks O’Malley didn’t give it his all – especially with his title on the line.

“He’s a bum, brother. He’s a bum,” Nurmagomedov told Submission Radio. “He didn’t do what he has to. He was running. I don’t know, like, if you’re champion, you can’t come inside the cage and fight like that. He got out this fight; he even didn’t tire. He left cage like fresh. What are you doing, man? You have to go ahead, do everything you can do to defend your title, but you were running, you were scared, and this guy played with you.

“He kissed you. He played. You remember when he didn’t wait until the round finished and he went out. You know, it means like, hey, I want to do whatever I want with you. Merab played with him, and I don’t know how he can talk after.”

With O’Malley angling for a rematch against Dvalishvili and Dvalishvili seemingly being open to it, Nurmagomedov won’t be fazed if that’s the direction the UFC opts to go. He’s willing to fight someone else to remain active.

“I won’t be surprised. I don’t care,” Nurmagomedov said. “They can do whatever they want, and I just have my goal. I can’t fight in March. If you see (them) booking this fight in March, OK. What we’re going to do, we’re going to be active, we’re going to be active. We’re going to take out other opponent, smash him and go ahead.”

Alex Pereira tends to handle his business inside the cage, rather than settling the score with trash talk, but it was nearly impossible for the UFC light heavyweight champion to ignore some recent comments made about him.

Ever since he knocked out Jamahal Hill in just over three minutes in the UFC 300 main event, Pereira has heard chirping from his past opponent and that hasn’t slowed down much lately. Just seconds after Pereira demolished Khalil Rountree Jr. at UFC 307, Hill reacted by yawning at the performance and later added that he was “not impressed” by the Brazilian’s latest win.

From the sound of things, Pereira is getting bored with the constant verbal jabs coming from Hill, who hasn’t fought since he got finished back in April.

“I’m going to be real honest with you, if that performance with Khalil was shit, where does Jamahal rank — the performance I had against him?” Pereira told Uncrowned. “If that fight was crap, so imagine the fight [against Jamahal].

“How can he say that? I’m going to be honest, I’m not going to further talk about Jamahal. I’m on a different level.”

While it’s pretty obvious that Hill still has some work to do before he could potentially call for a rematch, Pereira plans to stay busy as he looks ahead at a new year in 2025.

As champion, Pereira doesn’t feel like he has to call his shot regarding what’s next and that’s the way he likes it.

“I don’t have nobody in my mind,” Pereira said. “The organization came with Khalil last time and it was a surprise for me, too. I don’t really choose opponents.”

Pereira might not want to name anybody but all signs are pointing towards an eventual showdown against Magomed Ankalaev — if the Russian can get through Aleksandar Rakic next week at UFC 308.

Ankalaev has been very vocal about his desire to dethrone Pereira, especially after he effectively got passed over for the title shot that went to Rountree.

With his fight just days away, Ankalaev’s manager Ali Abdelaziz previously told MMA Fighting that as long as he takes care of business at UFC 308, then a fight against Pereira would be next.

For his part, Pereira isn’t in the business of turning down fights, although he’s getting a little fed up hearing from Ankalaev and his team so that might change his mind on how to approache these next negotiations.

“Some people say Ankalaev [is next] but I’m going to be honest with you, him and his manager have been talking a lot of crap saying that I don’t want to fight, this and that,” Pereira said. “But the reality is the organization doesn’t want him to fight because he’s boring. People don’t like to watch him fight. He’s not a guy that sells pay-per-views.

“Honestly, that’s disrespectful that they’re trying to put it on me. Because it’s not up to me, it’s up to the organization. The organization doesn’t want to make the fight. But now because they keep saying that, keep disrespecting, maybe I’ll make it a little bit even harder for them to fight [me].”

Obviously no matter what, Pereira has plenty of options available to him, especially after he stepped up and headlined three separate pay-per-view cards for the UFC in 2024.

Pereira admitted after his win over Rountree in October that he was dealing with a multitude of issues including some health problems that nearly made him pull out of the fight.

With his body needing some rest and putting together a very busy schedule in 2024, Pereira is ready for a little break now, right?

“Ideally, I would fight around June, it would be ideal, but maybe I’d like to fight around March even,” Pereira said. “But honestly I would fight in December right now. But the problem is these two fights [at UFC 303 and UFC 308] happen [so close together] and we had a lot of other appearances, a lot of trips, a lot of business to do.

“We had to push them after these two fights, it was scheduled before. The guys who organized it understood, but we have some obligations to do. I feel around March is a good date [to fight again].”

Nottingham Forest defender Nat Johnson is named in a first squad since qualifying for Euro 2022, while Birmingham City’s Ellie Mason, London City Lionesses’ Connie Scofield and Rangers midfielder Megan Bell return from injury.

There is also a change to Oxtoby’s goalkeeping options as Lauren Perry is ruled out with an ACL injury and she is replaced by Cliftonville goalkeeper Rachael Norney.

Winger Caragh Hamilton and midfielder Nadene Caldwell will also miss the two matches through injury, as will Hearts strikers Kerry Beattie.

It had been hoped Northern Ireland’s record goalscorer Rachel Furness would be fit to return for the first time in 12 months but she is also injured.

The 36-year-old, who has scored 38 goals in 95 caps, has been a regular for Newcastle United since moving to the Championship side in the summer.

The first leg takes place on Friday, 25 October (18:00 BST) before the return leg at Windsor Park on Tuesday, 29 October (19:00).

If Northern Ireland beat Croatia in the two-legged tie, they will face either Norway or Albania for a spot at next year’s tournament in Switzerland.

Northern Ireland qualified for the play-off by finishing second in Group B3, with three wins from six matches.

Croatia were third in Group B4, behind Wales and Ukraine, and if Northern Ireland progress they will face Norway or Albania for a place at the Euro 2025 finals.