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What promises to be a highly anticipated match between boxer Tyson Fury and MMA fighter Francis Ngannou may be happening in the near future.
On Friday, combat sports insider Ariel Helwani reported such a fight “is expected to be announced very soon.”
Ngannou has discussed facing Fury for years, and the latter revealed during an appearance on the Out of Interest podcast (h/t Ryan Harkness of MMA Mania) that the MMA fighter was willing to step into the boxing ring.
“Yes, Francis Ngannou,” Fury said when asked if any MMA fighters were willing to face him in a boxing match.
“There’s been a lot of talk of me and Ngannou fighting each other, and he wants to come to boxing, he wanted to fight me,” he continued. “He’s been talking a lot of stuff on Instagram, wants to fight. Was even at one of my last fights. Got in the ring, confronted me. There’s potential, potential. We’ve had a lot of offers come in from the Middle East at the moment to host that fight this summer.”
Ngannou told TMZ Sports in January he has been in contact with Fury’s representatives.
The idea of the two stars fighting picked up plenty of steam after Fury defeated Dillian Whyte in April 2022. Ngannou joined the victor in the ring, and they gave a joint interview discussing a matchup that would have hybrid rules with boxing and MMA elements:
MMA History Today @MMAHistoryToday
Boxing’s Heavyweight Champion standing next to the UFC Heavyweight Champion.
Francis Ngannou says that him and Tyson Fury will fight under hybrid rules.
In a boxing ring but with MMA gloves. pic.twitter.com/UmndMNgyzX
Going up against Fury, 34, would be quite the task for the 36-year-old.
Fury is 33-0-1 with 24 knockouts in his illustrious boxing career. His most recent win came over Derek Chisora in December, and most of his victories come in rather dominant fashion.
Ngannou is no stranger to dominance and went 17-3 while fighting in UFC from 2015 to 2022. He defeated Stipe Miocic for the UFC heavyweight title in March 2021 and then defended it against Cyril Gane in January 2022.
But finding a way to defeat Fury would be a different type of challenge.
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