If a mooted showdown between the heaviest punchers in boxing and mixed martial arts becomes a reality, Roy Jones Jr. is backing the boxer to get the job done.

Following his return to the cage in October where he scored a first-round TKO win over Renan Ferreira in his PFL debut in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Francis Ngannou has expressed a desire to return to the professional boxing arena after testing himself in defeats to both Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua over the course of the past 14 months or so.

The potential crossover bout between Ngannou and former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder has long been speculated, particularly after Wilder said he was open to competing against Ngannou in both combat codes and after Saudi Arabia’s boxing moneyman Turki Alalshikh outlined that he was considering pursuing said fight in 2025.

But if it becomes a reality, four-weight world champion Jones Jr. is of the opinion that Wilder, 39, would be too much for the mixed martial arts star.

“Wilder will beat Ngannou because he knows how to box, he knows what boxing is about,” Jones Jr. told Covers, as noted by Bloody Elbow.

“You saw what Anthony Joshua did to Ngannou, well Wilder is known for having a much more devastating punch than Anthony Joshua,” he added. “If Anthony Joshua hit him like that and did that to him what’s going to happen when Deontay Wilder lands?

“I wouldn’t say it’s a mismatch because if Ngannou can keep the right hand off of him he will give Deontay Wilder hell, you understand me, so I’m not going to call it a mismatch.

“[But] we’ve seen what happens to him when he gets clean with a boxing glove and Wilder, in my humble opinion, is a bigger puncher than Joshua.”

However, Jones Jr. also had a warning for Wilder: Stay away from the cage.

“I don’t think they should do one in the boxing ring, one in the cage,” Jones Jr. ex