Francis Ngannou's PFL Africa push inspires Costello Van Steenis ahead of title shot

The influence of Francis Ngannou has resulted in a lot of growth related to the PFL heading into Africa with one of the headliners on the company's inaugural PFL Africa card recently speaking about this opportunity. Appearing on a recent episode of Bowks Talking Bouts, Costello Van Steenis discussed multiple topics ahead of his bid for Johnny Eblen's middleweight belt at PFL Africa 1 on July 19.

When responding to the rhetoric surrounding how much the lineal MMA heavyweight champion and PFL Africa Chairman Francis Ngannou has served as a driving force for this historic event to transpire, Van Steenis said:

"Oh, it's great. I mean the first time I fought for the PFL, it was in November and to be honest, I got treated really well. I got a really warm welcome. Great people, great staff, great event. It was great. At the beginning it was like a little bit like oh s**t see what's going to happen. It's like some bad news over here, some good news over there." "So you didn't really know what was happening. But at the end of the day, after that event, it was great... Yes, definitely, definitely. An honor to open up the PFL card in Africa and fighting Johnny Eblen as the main card over there for the title. I mean, that's beautiful," he added.

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Check out Costello Van Steenis' thoughts below (0:29):

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Francis Ngannou is loyal to PFL, according to one of his coaches

Francis Ngannou is the lineal MMA heavyweight champion as well as PFL's titleholder and while some recent rumblings gave some the idea that the former UFC heavyweight champion might return to that promotion, a coach of 'The Predator' has thrown cold water on that rumor.

The 38-year-old became involved in a situation rife with miscommunciation as Ngannou's head MMA coach Eric Nicksick indicated a certain openness to whatever options that Ngannou needs. This had many interpreting that Francis Ngannou wanted to return to the UFC but another important figure in his life has clarified some things.

In an interview with Online Slots, Ngannou's striking coach Dewey Cooper touched on this situation, saying [via MMA Mania]:

"I don't see any chance of Francis returning to the UFC. The other coaches on our staff may think differently. I can see doing a kind of co-promotion thing, maybe a UFC fight, but in conjunction with the PFL.""Because when all this went down and we 'fumbled the bag', the PFL had Francis' back, and one thing about Francis, he appreciates the support he got from PFL."

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Edited by Tejas Rathi