Tyson Fury’s fight with Francis Ngannou has raised plenty of eyebrows in the boxing and UFC world, with their fight in Saudi Arabia on Saturday the biggest crossover showdown to date.
The Gypsy King had been criticised by many fans for accepting the fight against Ngannou, with fans having been desperate to see him face either Oleksandr Usyk or Anthony Joshua.
A unification bout with Usyk appears on the cards regardless of the result in Riyadh, with Fury’s WBC title not on the line.
Fury is the clear favourite heading into the bout, given the world heavyweight champion is fighting a rival who has never fought in boxing before.
For Ngannou, many view that the fight can only be positive for the former UFC heavyweight champion.
Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou will meet in their highly anticipated crossover fight in Riyadh
The showdown with Fury has only further raised the profile and bank balance of the Cameroonian star, who will earn the biggest payday of his career.
With the Battle of the Baddest seeing two fighters from different sports collide in the ring, Mail Sport takes a look at how their achievement compare both in and outside of the ring.
Tyson Fury v Francis Ngannou: Tale of the Tape
Fighting record
Fury’s exploits in the ring need little introduction, with the Gypsy King boasting a record of 33 wins and one draw from his 34 fight career.
He became Fury became world champion for the first time when he outpointed Wladimir Klitschko in Germany, claiming the IBF, IBO, WBA (Super) and WBO heavyweight titles.
Fury has been open about his struggles with depression and addiction since the fight, which led to a near three-year absence from the ring.
The now 35-year-old rebounded with his trilogy of fights with Deontay Wilder captivating fans.
The pair could not be separated by the judges in 2018, with Fury having remarkably recovered from being knocked down by The Bronze Bomber.
Fury earned back-to-back wins in their next meetings to firstly claim and then retain the WBC heavyweight title.
Fury holds the WBC heavyweight title and remains unbeaten in his 34 fight career
Fury declared himself to be the best fighter of his era after downing Deontay Wilder
‘When it comes down to it, every time I’ve delivered. I can only be the best of my day, I’ve done that: I’m the best fighter in my era,’ Fury claimed after the trilogy was completed in 2021.
‘Without sounding too sharp and clever, I believe that I could beat any man in history, any man born I believe I’ve got a really good chance of beating him.’
Fury, who has earned 24 knockout wins during his career, has since seen off Dillian Whyte and old rival Derek Chisora in the ring.
His opponent on Saturday has taken an arduous journey to the ring. Ngannou, 37, had grown up in the Cameroonian village of Batie, where he was raised by a single mother.
He was forced to walk six miles to go to school every day and was digging sand mines when he was just 10-years-old.
As he got older he made the journey from Cameroon to the north of the continent – travelling through Nigeria, Niger and Algeria before reaching Morocco.
Ngannou eventually settled in Paris, where he met the trainer Fernand Lopez, who would convince him to take up MMA instead of boxing.
‘For me I just started in MMA for fun. I had time to train so I thought why not train MMA as well,’ Ngannou reflected earlier this year.
‘And then things went very fast and they start asking did I want to fight. And I said “Yes let’s do it”.
‘I didn’t realise how fast it was going until the coach said to me “We’ve got a UFC contract for you”.
Ngannou claimed the heavyweight championship at UFC 260 stopping Stipe Miocic
The former UFC heavyweight champion has showcased his power with a series of knockouts
After winning five of his opening six mixed martial arts, Ngannou penned his first UFC contract and quickly set about making an impact in the promotion.
Six successive wins where he showcased his punching power earned him a heavyweight title shot against Stipe Miocic, but suffered a blowout loss in 2018.
He rebuilt from the defeat by Miocic and Derrick Lewis in brutal fashion, with a series of knockout wins. The Predator won three of his next four fights in under a minute, including a victory after just 20 seconds against Jairzinho Rozenstruik in 2020.
Ngannou would then avenge his defeat against Miocic in 2020, earning a knockout win after 52 seconds to claim the heavyweight title.
The 37-year-old took the decision to leave the UFC in January 2022 after defending his title against Ciryl Gane.
His UFC career ended with a record of 17 wins and three losses, including 12 knockouts. Ngannou has since signed with MMA promotion PFL, who have allowed him the chance to test his arm in the boxing world.
Career earnings
Fury’s earnings from his career are believed to dwarf those of Ngannou, with reports claiming the heavyweight may be worth as much as £130million.
His career earnings are believed to have largely come from the trilogy with Wilder. Forbes estimated that Fury earned £21m from his 2020 rematch against the American.
The figure reportedly pushed his earnings in 2020 alone to over £41m, while he is claimed to have earned £50m from the third fight with Wilder and his 2022 meeting with Whyte.
Fury’s last fight at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium against Chisora is believed to have earned him £20million.
Chisora has given his own estimate of how much Fury will earn in the ring against Ngannou, with the Briton suggesting he could pocket as much as £41m in Saudi Arabia this weekend.
Fury is believed to have earned £20million from his last fight against Derek Chisora last year
The 37-year-old’s earnings soared during his trilogy of fights against Deontay Wilder
Ngannou pocketed £600,000 in his biggest fight in the UFC against Ciryl Gane last year
Ngannou’s manager Marquel Martin has claimed his fighter will make more money from his fight with Fury than he did during his entire UFC career. Fury has claimed his opponent will earn in the region of £8m for their bout.
‘The Predator’ cashed in just shy of £4m during the course of a 14-fight stint with the MMA giants.
In Ngannou’s biggest-ever fight against Gane last year, he pocketed just £600,000.
He turned down a reported £6m-a-fight offer from the UFC to remain with the promotion, with the deal claimed to be the most lucrative in the promotion’s history.
The MMA star instead opted to walk away and sign a flexible deal with the Professional Fighters League, even though he insisted that decision was down to ‘freedom not money’.
Ngannou admitted the purse he will earn from facing Fury will be life changing to his family.
‘It [the money from the Fury bout] means a lot to me. It’s a lot to process, looking at where I started to where I am today. Where we are today in regards to my family too. It really does mean a lot to me and my biggest joy is to look at my family,’ Ngannou told Mail Sport.
‘I think about how we are secure, how we don’t have to worry at that terrible stuff anymore. We don’t have to worry about what to eat, we don’t have to worry about the clothes on our back, we don’t have to worry about the shoes on our feet.
‘We don’t have to worry about if a family member gets sick [and paying for health care]. We have security now and that’s something we had been worried about our entire lives.’
Ngannou returned to his childhood home after winning the UFC heavyweight title
Ngannou says his fight with Fury will help give security to his family (pictured above)
Physique
Much has been made of the differing physique’s of the two fighters before their bout.
Fury has always joked about his weight, and recently opened up to Mail Sport about his ‘love handles’, but he looked particularly out of shape when he joined Ngannou on stage for their first press conference in early September.
He displayed a more muscular physique this week, with Fury claiming he has been ‘living like a monk’ in recent weeks.
Ngannou has claimed Fury has tried to ‘trick’ people by calling himself ‘a fat pig’ and pointing at his love handles in the build-up to the fight.
The Gypsy King typically weighs in at 263lbs (18.7 stone), while Ngannou expects to be 270lbs (19.3 stone) for the fight.
The Cameroonian, who has displayed his ripped physique, will have a height disadvantage in the ring. Ngannou comes in at 6ft 4in, five inches shorter than Fury
However, the MMA star should have an advantage when it comes to his reach, which is reported to be 83 inches, compared to Fury at 80.
This could help Ngannou, who currently holds the record for the hardest punch in the world – having registered a striking power of 129,161 units on a PowerKube, (which measures the power of a punch by analysing its force, speed and accuracy).
Ngannou won 71 per cent of his UFC fights by a knock-out and will be chasing the same outcome on Saturday.
Fury has gone from being out of shape at last month’s press conference (left), to being fighting fit ahead of Saturday’s crossover clash with Ngannou
Fury will have the height advantage in the ring with the Gypsy King standing at 6ft 9in
Trainers
Ngannou’s hopes of causing a seismic upset have been boosted by the presence of boxing legend Mike Tyson, who has mentored the MMA star ahead of his debut.
Former heavyweight world champion Tyson, who is widely viewed as one of the greatest of all-time, has been working on Ngannou’s boxing technique, footwork, and ring intelligence.
Tyson told Mail Sport that he had accepted the offer to work with Ngannou as he wanted to become involved in an ‘immortal event’.
The 57-year-old, who revealed his still ripped physique by sharing a photo on social media this week, admitted he had been taken aback by the Ngannou’s raw power.
Tyson expressed his belief that Ngannou has the chance to knock-out Fury, but said he would need a career-best performance.
Speaking of the influence of Tyson, Ngannou admitted that while he won’t have the legend’s style in the ring, he believes his presence has revealed to him the scale of the fight and has improved his mentality.
‘Having Mike Tyson present just makes you realise what is happening,’ Ngannou told Mail Sport. ‘You know that you have a fight and obviously you are serious about it but it seems like there is something missing.
‘You’re like “OK I have a fight but what else do I need”. Then you have Mike Tyson and he’s basically like the biggest boxing figure. It makes me think, “oh man, this is serious, very very serious. It doesn’t get more serious than this”.
Ngannou has been boosted ahead of the fight by teaming up with boxing legend Mike Tyson, left
Tyson has been looking to improve Ngannou’s boxing technique, footwork, and ring IQ
SugarHill Steward, right, put Fury through his paces in Riyadh in the build-up to the fight
‘That alone brings you a lot of motivation. Even when you’re tired, even when you’re done for the day, I’m like “man one more. I want to do one more”. I’m like I just want to be like that man. So all that stuff, has helped me mentally already.’
Tyson Fury has claimed it is ‘surreal’ to be facing a fighter coached by Mike Tyson, having been named in honour of the boxing legend. Fury has, however, claimed it will not make a difference who is in Ngannou’s corner.
Promoter Bob Arum has warned that Fury needs to be careful following Tyson’s influence.
‘Mike Tyson is doing a great job training and advising Francis Ngannou,’ Arum posted on X. ‘I’ve cautioned Tyson Fury to be very careful, particularly of Ngannou’s incredible right hand.’
Fury remains coached by SugarHill Steward, who joined his camp in 2019 and oversaw his preparations for a trilogy of fights with Deontay Wilder.
The pair exchanged in a dance battle during a workout in Riyadh earlier this week, as Fury put on a show in the build-up to the showdown.
SugarHill then put Fury through his paces with drills leaving the heavyweight world champion leaving the ring dripping in sweat.
Lifestyle
Fury is well-known for his relationship with Paris, with the childhood sweethearts and marrying when they were 21 and 19 respectively.
The couple welcomed their seventh child on September, who they named Prince Rico Paris Fury.
Paris revealed that Tyson had narrowly missed the birth due to his training camp.
The couple are also parents to Venezuela, 13, Prince John James, 11, Prince Tyson II, seven, Valencia, five, Prince Adonis Amaziah, four, and Athena, two.
Paris has insisted relationships are all about the ‘give and take’ as she explained how Tyson will take over childcare after the fight.
She said: ‘He’s in training for a fight at the moment so I am at home with the kids but when he comes back he takes over.
‘Relationships are never 50/50 sometimes they’re 60/40. It’s all about the give and take.’
Ngannou has been romantically linked to fellow MMA star Miesha Tate, with reports they have been dating in recent months. Neither Ngannou or Tate has confirmed the speculation.
Fury married his childhood sweetheart Paris when they were 21 and 19 respectively
The couple welcomed the birth of their seventh child, Prince Rico Paris Fury, last month
Fury showed off his fleet of supercars after beating Dillian Whyte at Wembley last year
Tate had previously uploaded a photo on social media of Ngannou and her two children, who are from her past relationship with MMA fighter Johnny Nunez.
The American, who was previously the UFC bantamweight champion, captioned the photo ‘The Baddest Man on the Planet is really just a gentle giant!’
Fury and Ngannou have both splashed out on cars following their success in the ring and octagon respectively.
Fury last year took to Instagram to show off his fleet of supercars outside of his £1.7m home in Morecambe. He boasts two Rolls-Royce Cullinan cars, which cost upwards of £300,000 in his collection – which is believed to be worth over £1m.
Ngannou owns both a Rolls-Royce Ghost and a Phantom, with the latter worth a reported £421,000, surpassing the value of Fury’s biggest purchase.
Their collections are both similar, with both owning a G-Wagon and Ferraris.
Fury’s collection also includes further Rolls-Royces, a classic Mini Cooper, and a Range Rover.
Ngannou showed off one of his Rolls Royce cars 11 weeks out from his showdown with Fury
Predictions
Fury has understandably been bullish ahead of the fight, with the world champion insisting he can deal with the crossover star inside six rounds.
‘I’m gonna knock him out inside six rounds. And shall I tell you how I’m going to do it?’ Fury told TNT Sports.
‘Get on the front foot, high arm, sticking him with a punishing jab, 19, 20 stone in the face, boom, boom, boom, bust him up, swell his eyes out, and then feint, slip, bang! K.O.
‘On the front foot, not running away. On the front foot, hand-eye, let him hit the shoulder, slip, slip, bang, slip, slip, bang. Down in a heap.
‘Listen, no one can take my power. Nobody. These heavyweights don’t have a chance.’
Ngannou believes he has the punching power to take down Fury, but believes the question will be whether his ring craft can give him the opportunity.
‘I know he is going to go down if I connect, Ngannou told Top Rank Boxing. ‘The question is whether I connect’.
Fans will be eager to find out when the two meet in Saudi Arabia.
Fury has claimed he will knock out Ngannou inside six rounds of the 10-round contest