Former UFC champion Daniel Cormier has warned Francis Ngannou to not bite off more than he can chew ahead of his proposed return to the boxing ring this year.

Ngannou has to date competed in two high profile professional boxing contests, losing narrowly to Tyson Fury in October 2023 before suffering a crushing second-round knockout loss to Anthony Joshua a year ago. ‘The Predator’ returned to mixed martial arts this past October where he scored a first-round TKO win over Renan Ferreira in his debut fight with the PFL but has more recently outlined that his next bout will come in boxing, with former WBC champion Deontay Wilder reportedly targeted as an opponenet.

But according to Cormier, Ngannou will never be as effective in the ring as he is in the cage.

“Sure, he’s going to make a boat load of money, he always does, but … if you ask me it would seem like he’s up against it again,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel, as noted by MMA Fighting.

“Maybe he’s just the biggest, baddest man on the planet that we all believe and he doesn’t care that he’s up against it and he wants to prove everyone wrong like he did the first time when he fought Tyson Fury and he fought him to a very close fight. But we cannot ignore the visuals of what we saw the last time, especially when he came back to MMA and fought so well.”

“People don’t hurt Francis Ngannou, but when it happened in the [Joshua] fight, he looked lost,” he added. “That’s what’s concerning to me. Because I know there will be moments in that fight with Deontay Wilder the way that he punches where he’s going to need to find safety.”

Ultimately, Cormier says that the image of an unconscious Ngannou in the moment after his loss to Joshua last year are hard to ignore as he proceeds with his boxing career — even amid the potential of another bumper payday.

“Is that enough to put yourself in a way or a spot where what happened last time could happen again?”