Eddie Hearn believes Tyson Fury’s proposed fight with former UFC champion Francis Ngannou will be announced in the next day or so – and has revealed where he believes it will take place.
Although nothing has yet been formally announced, there has been plenty of rumours that the cross-discipline bout will be taking place at some point this year, and a video has surfaced of Ngannou doing some pure boxing training.
It will mark WBC champion Fury’s first time in the ring since a one-sided beatdown of Derek Chisora in their trilogy fight last December.
Speaking to IFL TV, Hearn says you cannot blame Fury for making “a load of money” to fight Ngannou before saying he thinks the fight will be held in Saudi Arabia.
“Fury is fighting Ngannou and that will be announced for Saudi today or tomorrow, whenever it is.
The [Oleksandr] Usyk fight was there and he chose not to fight him. If you really want the fight you make it happen. I don’t begrudge the man. He will be 100-1 on. They could fight a million times and Ngannou wouldn’t win the fight. If Fury’s going to get 40-50 million to fight him, good luck to him. He doesn’t really want the undisputed legacy. I get it.”
Hearn goes on to wonder if Fury should be stripped of his WBC title, as Usyk’s promoter Alexander Krassyuk has suggested.
“Probably not, but he should have a mandatory. The rules state in the WBC that every 12 months there is a mandatory challenger. The one last was Dillian Whyte 13-14 months ago so I don’t see why he shouldn’t have another mandatory.”
Fans will hope that once the Ngannou fight is out of the way, Fury will be forced to face-off against a genuine contender from his own sport.