For Tyson Fury, it seems all roads lead to MMA star Francis Ngannou with a fight announcement reportedly very close.
News of the potential crossover bout – the rules of which are yet to be known – hasn’t landed well with boxing fans, pundits and fellow fighters, with many believing Fury should be defending his WBC world title against a ranked contender.
His team say that they tried to make fights of that nature and various reasons led to nothing happening.
It’s been well-documented that the undisputed talks with Oleksandr Usyk collapsed and will be revisited, and Fury also attempted twice to call out domestic rival and former champion, Anthony Joshua.
So Ngannou it looks to be, and Joshua gave IFL TV his initial thoughts on the match-up.
“Three thoughts.
One – I shouldn’t give a f**k, it’s none of my business. It has no business concerning me. It pays me no business.
Number two – Why? He should’ve been fighting for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world. Straight up. That’s nonsense. His fault.
Three – If we’re acknowledging his business, good luck to the man. Do your thing. If it’s right for him, what’s it got to do with me?
That’s my three views on it.”
Joshua firmly believes that Fury was the one at fault for the Usyk – a man he himself has faced twice – bout not happening, despite Fury claiming the Ukrainian was ‘scared.’
Should the Ngannou bout go ahead without jeopardy, and Usyk defend his belts successfully against Daniel Dubois in August, the pair are expected to enter talks with Saudi Arabia to stage the fight in the first quarter of 2024.