Tyson Fury is ready to answer Francis Ngannou’s challenge.
Now that the former UFC heavyweight champion is officially a free agent and looking for his next fight, Fury says that he’s absolutely open to the challenge and he’s still proposing a mixed rule set that could give Ngannou a few advantages.
“Francis Ngannou, I know you’re out of contract with the UFC,” Fury said when speaking to Radio Rahim. “You want to earn some big boy money? Come see ‘The Gypsy King’ and let’s do a big, big fight for the baddest MF on the planet.
“Let’s kick it up spicy, in a cage, four-ounce gloves under Queensbury [rules] and let’s have a badass referee like ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson. Did I just sell that to the world?”
Fury has stated numerous times in the past that he’d be interested in clashing with Ngannou and that the fight didn’t have to be a straight up boxing match.
With a perfect 33-0-1 record as the reigning WBC and Ring heavyweight champion, Fury would undoubtedly be a massive favorite in a boxing match against Ngannou. Ngannou has a very impressive résumé in mixed martial arts, however he has no amateur or professional experience whatsoever in boxing.
That said, Ngannou has been dreaming about crossing over to boxing for most of his life, even before he took up MMA for the first time. Since Ngannou dropped the UFC heavyweight title and became an unrestricted free agent, he’s stated that his next fight will most likely take place in boxing.
Just days later, Ngannou named Fury or Anthony Joshua as ideal opponents.
It remains to be seen how quickly the matchup could come together, however, because Fury is already in deep negotiations for a champion versus champion matchup against WBA, IBF, WBO, and IBO heavyweight king Oleksandr Usyk.
“If the contract doesn’t get signed with Usyk next for the fight of the century in boxing then we’ll do the Ngannou fight,” Fury teased. “Whether it’s going to be in Las Vegas or Wembley [Stadium], who will know — we will know quote soon I think.
“Because if these fellas don’t start coming up and signing the contract for the fight of the century then we’re moving on to greener pastures.”
According to Fury, there’s no indication that his team and Usyk’s promoters won’t be able to come to an agreement, but he’s obviously getting anxious to strike a deal sooner rather than later.
Usyk currently sports an undefeated 20-0 record including back-to-back wins over Anthony Joshua, which put him into position to face Fury in a heavyweight title unification bout.
“At the moment, everything seems to be going really, really well, but again there’s no pen to paper,” Fury said about the Usyk fight. “We haven’t got a date or a site. These things take time and I’m not really getting involved. Frank Warren and the lawyer Robert, they’re going to sort it all out so we’ll see what happens.
“I’m looking forward to that fight of the century with Oleksandr Usyk and I’m naming it the fight of the century, because the last fight of the century before this was Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier 1, and before that it was Gene Tunney vs. Jack Demsey 1.”
