Francis
Ngannou has been thinking about a potential fight against
boxing champion Tyson Fury
for quite some time now.
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“I’ve been studying him for the past three years,” Ngannou said in
a recent interview with TMZ Sports. “I’ve been to some of his
fights.”
The former UFC champion will get to test his skills against Fury
when they square off in a boxing match on Oct. 28 in Riyadh, Saudia
Arabia. Ngannou has notably been working with Mike Tyson in
preparation for the bout.
“I think my feet [are] the most [improved],” Ngannou said. “All the
footwork, that power transition. I think that’s been very
amazing.”
Fury was dismissive of that relationship in a post on social
media.
“It’s good to see you’re training hard [Francis
Ngannou], and you’re going to need to,” Fury wrote. “It doesn’t
matter if you’re being trained by the great Mike Tyson, Muhammad
Ali or Bruce Lee. You’re going to get KO’d in the Kingdom.”
Ngannou isn’t especially concerned with his opponent’s trash talk.
“The Predator” is confident that he’ll be able to let the power in
his hands do the talking.
“What doesn’t matter is what he says. What matters is what’s gonna
happen in Saudi and in Saudi, he’s gonna hit the canvas. I can tell
you that,” Ngannou said. “He’s gonna hit the canvas. I don’t know
how you call that, but I know that he’s going to the canvas. He’s
good at [getting] back up but we’re gonna find out how good he is.
But he’s gonna hit that canvas.”
Ngannou hasn’t had a fight of any kind since he took a unanimous
decision over Ciryl Gane
at UFC 270 in January 2022. He has since signed with the
Professional Fighters League, with his debut expected next year.
Ngannou indicated that his first PFL bout could come in the first
quarter of 2024.
“I’ll see you in the PFL in February or March,” he said.