Francis Ngannou has indicated that he is locked in on Tyson Fury. The former UFC heavyweight champion uploaded a video of himself running on a treadmill while studying Fury’s last fight against Derek Chisora.
Ngannou recently parted ways with the UFC and is now set to make the transition to professional boxing. Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder and Fury have all been teased as possible options by the Cameroonian for his debut. But his latest upload may be an inclination that he prefers the latter of the three.
Fury and Ngannou were set to square off last year following the Mancunian’s brief retirement from professional boxing. However, with Ngannou still signed to a UFC contract back then, a deal was not able to be struck.
But since cutting ties with the MMA giants the fight is back on the table and both parties appear to be very keen on making it happen. Fury recently staked his claim to a fight with the knockout artist by setting the terms for a blockbuster hybrid boxing bout. He affirmed that the contest should be fought in a cage, in 4oz gloves with boxing legend Mike Tyson as the referee.
“[The meeting was] maybe last week… We didn’t go too deeply into stuff but I respect him greatly for the way he’s handled his career. To the point now where he’s in a fantastic position. He has a new ocean to navigate, which is a lot more rocky than the world of MMA and UFC.”
He added: “He’s in the wild west of boxing… We’ll see what happens. For me, we would love to be involved in his career. The Anthony Joshua fight is just probably one of the biggest fights that could be made across any kind of sport. Obviously, the Tyson Fury fight is there for him as well. I was pretty captivated by him. I’m not a massive MMA fan, but I respect what he’s done there.
“He’s got a golden opportunity now to really solidified himself and many generations beyond him through being involved in an event, that would be one of the biggest in fight sports history. [For his first boxing match] I think he should fight Anthony Joshua.”