Mike Tyson believes that Francis Ngannou only needs one “punch on Tyson Fury‘s jaw” to win the pair’s highly anticipated fight in Saudi Arabia on October 28. Tyson is coaching the former UFC heavyweight champion in his first professional boxing bout against Fury, who is undefeated and the current WBC heavyweight champion.
In order to prepare for his first steps into a boxing round, MMA legend Ngannou enlisted the help of Tyson. The pair have been seen taking part in various training sessions leading up to the bout, with “Iron Mike” providing his expertise and experience.
The fight will be Ngannou’s first since a unanimous decision win against Ciryl Gane back in January 2022 – his last under contract at the UFC before joining the Professional Fighters League. Fury is also coming off the back of a win after he defeated Dereck Chisora via TKO in the pair’s trilogy bout.
But despite it being Ngannou’s first time in the boxing ring, Tyson believes the MMA fighter is well suited to a different style of fighting.
“I am helping Ngannou. I am learning what he is able to do. He’s able to do so much more than I anticipated,” Tyson said in an interview with the Daily Mail.
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“He has what it takes to knock out anything or anybody standing in his way. Once he lands a punch on Tyson Fury‘s jaw he is going to knock him out too. Nobody can survive that.”
Fury has not been shy in talking about his own legacy, whether it is as the “lineal” heavyweight champion or one of the best the fight game has seen. Tyson went on to praise Ngannou’s opponent but still believes that he has a long way to go before he can be considered among boxing royalty.
“Fury’s not the all-time great but he’s one of the all-time greats,” he said.
“He’s really high up. He can do greatness right now. He’s always going to bring a good night of boxing, fight hard. You’ve got to try and hit him with a shot to knock him cold out because he always gets back up and fights hard.”
Tyson’s comments come shortly after Fury labelled his involvement in the fight as “sad” during a recent interview with Sky Sports.
“The man that I am named after, a legend, has to go against me and then come out as a loser, having lost to a man who was named after him,” Fury said. “I think that it’s sad and I think that he should be in my corner, not the opposing corner, but business is business and I understand that it’s strictly business.”
Fury and Ngannou will touch gloves in a 10-round fight in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on October 28.