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UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou got skipped over by the UFC for his next title defense, but now the 34-year-old at least has a viable long-term backup plan.
Boxing champion Tyson Fury has some massive fights lined up inside a boxing ring over the next year or so, but the 32-year-old restated his desire to face Ngannou inside an MMA cage with four-ounce gloves in a superfight spectacle like no other before it.
Fury told TMZ Sports earlier this week that he still wants to fight Ngannou under boxing rules but inside the cage.
“[Nick Diaz] did tell me that Ngannou can’t do wrestling anyway, so yeah we’re just looking for a stand-up, bang-out. Me and Ngannou in the small gloves. Make it happen…as soon as I’m done with [Deontay] Wilder and [Anthony] Joshua, I will fight Ngannou in an Octagon, in the four-ounce gloves, punching [only],’ Fury said.
Ngannou, 34, won the UFC heavyweight championship by knockout out against Stipe Miocic at UFC 260.
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Fury Has Big Fights on the Way Inside Boxing Ring
Fury is already on his way to defending his lineal and WBC heavyweight championship against Wilder on July 24.
Fury and Wilder have already fought twice, and the second fight was a one-sided beatdown for Fury. But Wilder enacted his rematch clause to force the third encounter, so that’s what Fury will do next.
After Fury vs. Wilder 3, the winner of that fight will hope to link up with the winner of the upcoming battle between unified heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua and former cruiserweight king Oleksandr Usyk.
That would crown boxing’s first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis over 20 years ago.
Assuming Fury makes it through both those massive fights unscathed, the boxing champ says he wants to face the UFC’s heavyweight champion in an MMA cage under boxing rules.
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Fury Keeps Telling People His Idea
It’s not a new idea.
Fury told retired UFC champ Michael Bisping the same idea about fighting Ngannou a few weeks ago in an interview with BT Sport while shirtless.
In fact, Fury might have actually misremembered that it was Bisping who told him Ngannou couldn’t wrestle, not the elder Diaz brother.
Fury and Diaz had trained together recently, so maybe Diaz told him the same thing, or maybe Fury got things a little mixed up.
Whatever the case, Bisping told him that when Fury was explaining why he would never fight Ngannou under MMA rules.
“If I fight Ngannou in a wrestling match, I’m not a wrestler, so I’m just going to get taken down to the floor…and smashed to pieces,” Fury said.
When “The Count” explained to Fury that Ngannou wasn’t really a wrestling-based MMA fighter, the boxing champ clarified his stance.
“Well, he knows more than me,” Fury said.
Ngannou vs. Fury Would Be Surreal Superfight
So Fury does seem to believe a boxing match against Ngannou inside an MMA cage with small gloves on would bring the best of boxing and MMA into one amazing new thing.
Moreover, such a superfight spectacle would bring together the two heavyweight champions from separate sports into one surreal megafight for the ages.
It’s not on the way anytime soon because both champs have work to do in their own sports. Fury has his plans in boxing, and Ngannou will probably meet the interim champ crowned at UFC 265 on August 7 when Derrick Lewis takes on Cyril Gane.
But Ngannou vs. Fury might be on the horizon, and that would be a new kind of fight featuring two of the biggest names in combat sports.
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