Pitting two of the best heavyweight combat athletes in the world against each other would be a “big money fight,” boxing analyst Teddy Atlas said recently.
WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury just put the stamp on his rivalry with Deontay Wilder, defeating “The Bronze Bomber” and retaining his boxing world title by 11th-round KO earlier this month. The “Gypsy King” has a professional record of 31-0-1, which includes 22 wins by KO/TKO.
Fury still has several potential challenges he can face, including Dillan Whyte, Oleksandr Usyk, and of course, Anthony Joshua. But how fun would it be for the Gyspy King to box “The Predator” of MMA, UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou?
Ngannou won the heavyweight title in March 2021 at UFC 260 when he viciously knocked out reigning champion Stipe Miocic.
The Predator is viewed as one of the most powerful fighters to ever grace the Octagon, earning 12 of his 16 wins by KO/TKO. And Ngannou has shared many times that he has an interest in boxing. Fury vs. Ngannou would undoubtedly spark the interest of fight fans as two heavyweight champions from different sports collide.
Well, Atlas wants fans to be “honest” with themselves should the two ever meet inside a boxing ring.
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Atlas Thinks Fury Would Have an ‘Insurmountable Edge’ Against Ngannou in a Boxing Bout
In a recent interview with Submission Radio, Atlas gave his take on the heavyweight boxing money fight.
“I think the making of that is really all based on money,” Atlas said via MMANews.com. “Let’s be honest with ourselves, if it’s not gonna be based on MMA rules, if it’s gonna be with boxing rules, the guy who’s been boxing since he was 12 years old, the guy who’s had 200 amateur fights, the guy who’s trained in a gym for all those years to be a top boxer, he’s gonna have a huge edge, maybe an insurmountable edge to be quite frank.”
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Atlas Continued, Doesn’t Think Ngannou’s Puncher’s Chance Will Make a Difference
GettyStipe Miocic and Francis Ngannou
Atlas recognized Ngannou’s powerful hands, but he doesn’t think that’s enough to get the best of the boxing ace, Fury.
“We probably fool ourselves because we want to fool ourselves,” Atlas continued. “We want to be entertained, we want to believe it… If you’re gonna support this fight, you wanna believe that the big monster from Cameroon can land a punch and knock the guy cold, even though he’s an MMA fighter and not a boxer… How often does a guy who’s not as developed, not nearly as developed as the top fighter, how many times have we really seen where he’s got a puncher’s edge… not too often.
“It would be a big money fight. Would it be competitive? Most likely not… Fury is a pretty complete package, besides having the advantage of years and years of boxing training.”
Of course, Ngannou already has his hands full in the UFC. He is set to unify the heavyweight title against interim champion Ciryl Gane at UFC 270 on January 22, 2022.
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Boxing’s Tyson Fury vs. UFC’s Francis Ngannou: ‘Big Money Fight’