Francis Ngannou and Philipe Lins meet on the MVP MMA 1 main card Saturday at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif. Check out this quick breakdown of the matchup from MMA Junkie analyst Dan Tom.
Francis Ngannou vs. Philipe Lins MVP MMA 1 preview
Ngannou (18-3) was last in MMA action in October 2024, when he finished Renan Ferreira by TKO in the first round at PFL Super Fights. Despite losing both of his boxing bouts against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua after exiting the UFC in January 2022, Ngannou is on a seven-fight winning streak in MMA.
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Lins (18-5) was last in action at UFC 299, where he won a unanimous decision over Ion Cutelaba. He enters on a four-fight winning streak, although those fights were at light heavyweight. Lins fought twice as a heavyweight in the UFC, losing both outings.
Francis Ngannou vs. Philipe Lins MVP MMA 1 expert pick, prediction
Serving as another five-round feature on Netflix is a heavyweight showdown between Francis Ngannou and Felipe Lins.
Ngannou, who is both the former and lineal UFC heavyweight champion, was last seen successfully defending his PFL world title opposite Renan Ferreira in 2024.
Continuing to grow under the care of Eric Nicksick and company at Xtreme Couture MMA, Ngannou displayed some of his underrated wrestling and grappling to get the win over Ferreira. That said, I’m not so sure Ngannou will be too eager to grapple with Lins.
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A Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and former PFL heavyweight tournament winner, Lins is used to tying up with much larger men in order to get the win. Still, I suspect that Ngannou may be too tall an order for Lins in this spot.
Unless Lins can secure takedowns early and often, I suspect that he succumbs to the power of Ngannou in the first few exchanges.
The pick is Ngannou by knockout in Round 1.
Francis Ngannou vs. Philipe Lins MVP MMA 1 odds
The oddsmakers and the public heavily favor the former UFC champ, listing Ngannou -2000 and Lins +830 via FanDuel.
Francis Ngannou vs. Philipe Lins MVP MMA 1 start time, how to watch
Ngannou and Lins are expected to walk to the cage at approximately 10:10 p.m. ET. The fight streams live on Netflix.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: MVP MMA 1: Francis Ngannou vs. Philipe Lins prediction, pick, time
