Francis Ngannou is certainly open to the possibility of fighting Anthony “Rumble” Johnson — however, there needs to be certain stakes involved.

Johnson recently signaled his intentions to return to the Octagon in 2020. The former light heavyweight knockout artist even revealed it would be at heavyweight.

For most mixed martial arts fans, there is only one matchup that comes to mind and that’s with Ngannou. Both fighters have a combined 26 knockouts on their resume and if they met, it would be an explosive matchup to say the least.

READ MORE:  Jon Anik shares thoughts on Israel Adesanya's loss to Sean Strickland at UFC 293: 'Anything can happen'

However, Johnson said he would be interested in that fight if the stakes were high such as the title being involved. Ngannou seems to agree as he doesn’t want to fight the former title challenger just for the heck of it:

“I listened to what he said, and he said it well,” Ngannou told MMA Junkie. “I couldn’t say it better than that. If they put it in the right context and they put the right elements for that fight, then it should happen.

READ MORE:  Stipe Miocic warns Tyson Fury of Francis Ngannou's blistering power: 'He hits hard and throws wild'

“But it won’t just be like, ‘OK, just go fight. Entertain people. Just go do some main event,’ or whatever, or some special fight. That doesn’t interest me.”

Do you agree with both fighters that a potential matchup needs to be high stakes?

Experienced freelance sports writer covering mixed martial arts (MMA) extensively for the last few years. Likes a good body shot.