In a heavyweight fight billed by promoters as a battle for “Baddest Man on the Planet” status, lineal and World Boxing Council champion Tyson Fury is set to take on former UFC champion Francis Ngannou in October.
The fight, which was announced Tuesday by Top Rank, is slated to take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and adhere to the official rules of professional boxing.
Ngannou, 36, will be in his first professional boxing match, although it remains unclear if the fight will count toward either pugilist’s official record. The 34-year-old Fury remained undefeated at 33-0-1 after dispatching Derek Chisora by technical knockout in December. That came eight months after a victory over Dillian Whyte that was immediately followed by Fury saying of Ngannou, who attended the April 2022 fight, that the MMA star was “on my hit list in an exhibition fight.”
In a statement shared Tuesday, Fury said: “I can’t wait to get back out there under the lights. I’m looking forward to showing the world that The Gypsy King is the greatest fighter of his generation in an epic battle with another master of his craft.”
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“I’ve been waiting to meet Tyson in the ring for the past three years,” Ngannou said in a statement. “My dream was always to box, and to box the best. After becoming the undisputed MMA Heavyweight Champion, this is my opportunity to make that dream come true and cement my position as the baddest man on the planet.”
A native of Cameroon who fled an impoverished childhood by traveling north across the Sahara desert before eventually emerging as a combat-sports force in Paris, Ngannou rose to the top of the UFC by dethroning then-heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic in March 2021. Ngannou made one title defense, a January 2022 win by unanimous decision over Ciryl Gane, before talks with the UFC on a new contract stalled to the point where Ngannou was stripped of his belt.
This May, Ngannou bolted from the MMA giant and signed with the upstart Professional Fighters League. The deal calls for him to put his 17-3 MMA record on the line starting in 2024, but he will first test his mettle in a blockbuster boxing match that could pack more of a punch than UFC star Conor McGregor’s desultory loss in 2017 to boxing champion Floyd Mayweather.
Ngannou, who developed a reputation as arguably the most powerful striker in MMA while racking up 12 knockouts, set a world record for hardest punch, as measured in 2017 by a PowerKube device. Fury, for his part, has 24 knockouts, although he is not generally regarded as an especially potent puncher. In Tuesday’s statement, he promised his fight with Ngannou will be a “bombs away” affair.
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“This guy is supposed to be the hardest puncher in the world,” said Fury, an Englishman of Irish Traveller heritage who has risen from his own financially humble origins, “but let’s see how he reacts when he gets hit by the Big [Gypsy King].”
Top Rank said the fight will have three ringside judges scoring the bout according to the 10-point must system. The number of rounds has yet to be revealed.
The fight will take place as part of the opening of Riyadh Season, a six-month festival that began in 2019, when it hosted a heavyweight title rematch between British star Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz Jr. In February, Fury’s half brother, Tommy Fury, handed Jake Paul the first loss of the internet influencer’s boxing career in a bout staged in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia.
The announcement of the Fury-Ngannou fight came on the same day that Saudi Arabia’s increasing investments in the sports world received scrutiny in a Senate hearing that focused on the partnership recently agreed upon by the nation’s Public Investment Fund and the PGA Tour. With Wimbledon underway in England, both men’s and women’s players there expressed concerns last week about the possibility of greater backing from Saudi Arabia, which has been criticized for its human rights record, in their tours.
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