Francis Ngannou shut down rumours that he’s avoiding an Alexander Volkov fight in the most abrupt way possible.

The heavy-hitter, Ngannou, has been busy striking his way through the heavyweight division. His last three fights have all ended in first-round with victories against Curtis Blaydes, Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos. News recently broke that he will be fighting rising heavyweight contender Jairzinho Rozenstruik in the main event of UFC Columbus in Ohio, March 2020.

Meanwhile, Alexander Volkanov is riding high off a recent win and was hoping to continue that momentum against ‘The Predator’. He defeated Greg Hardy via unanimous decision at UFC Moscow last month and was looking to throw down with Ngannou next. With that said, “Drago” was not happy to discover that Francis is booked and busy. He took to Twitter to vent his frustrations:

“Its just me, or @francis_ngannou just evaded me again?He wanted to fight me so much, but ducked me for the other guy as soon as I ve asked UFC to fight him.He is funny…”

The first-round finisher responded with a no-frills (but added emoji) response:

“Shut up pussy.”

https://twitter.com/francis_ngannou/status/1205434281662668800

Francis Ngannou was originally offered the opportunity to fight Alexander Volkov at UFC Moscow after Junior Dos Santos withdrew due to injury. The short notice and lack of time to prepare left “The Predator” in a situation where the risks outweighed the reward. He turned down the fight leaving Greg Hardy to face Drago.

Jairzinho Rozenstruik shot up the UFC rankings board following his shocking win against Alistair Overeem last weekend. The undefeated fighter is currently ranked number 5 in the heavyweight division whilst Volkov sits at number 7. Ngannou’s upcoming bout against Jairzinho Rozenstruik could edge Ngannou significantly closer to a title shot.

Alexander Volkov responded to the Cameroon fighter’s insult. He said:

“You intelligence level is inspiring, making such thoughtfull and deep remarks wont change the fact that you are one who is too scared to fight me. Now twice.”

You intelligence level is inspiring, making such thoughtfull and deep remarks wont change the fact that you are one who is too scared to fight me. Now twice. https://t.co/ss3995C2VV

— Alexander Volkov (@AlexDragoVolkov) December 13, 2019

Do you think Francis Ngnnou is ducking the fight, or is Alexander Volkov jumping to conclusions? Sound off in the comments below at Penn Nation.