Tyson Fury will take on Francis Ngannou this Saturday in an all-star bout that has been dubbed the “Battle of the Baddest”.
On paper, a fight between the WBC heavyweight champion and someone stepping into a professional boxing ring for the first time could not be more of a mismatch.
But Ngannou is a former UFC heavyweight champion – the first ever from Africa – owing to his knockout of one of the greatest heavyweights in UFC history, Stipe Miocic, in 2021. Ngannou never lost his title, instead being stripped of it when he left the UFC organisation. He is also being trained by Mike Tyson for this bout.
When is Fury vs Ngannou?
Fury vs Ngannous will take place on Saturday 28 October in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The undercard is expected to begin at around 6pm BST, with ring walks for the main event set for roughly 10.40pm – though start time will be dependent on how the undercard goes.
The following fights have been confirmed for the undercard:
- Fabio Wardley vs David Adeleye (British heavyweight title fight)
- Joseph Parker vs Simon Kean (heavyweight)
- Arslanbek Makhmudov vs Junior Anthony Wright (heavyweight)
- Moses Itauma vs Istvan Bernath (heavyweight)
- Carlos Takam vs Martin Bakole (heavyweight)
- Jack McGann vs Alcibiade Duran Galvan (super-welterweight)
How can I watch Fury vs Ngannou?
The fight will be shown live on TNT Sports Box Office in the UK. TNT Sports Box Office is available on Sky, Virgin and BT, as well as TNT’s website and app. Access will cost £21.95. You do not need to be a TNT Sports subscriber to purchase the event.
Why is the fight happening?
Fury has not fought since his win over Dereck Chisora last December, while Ngannou’s last outing was defeating Ciryl Gane at UFC 270 in January 2022.
There were attempts to secure a unified world title fight between Fury and WBA, WBO and IBF champion Oleksandr Usyk, but talks fell through, while a potential bout with Anthony Joshua also failed to come to fruition.
So instead Fury has turned to this crossover fight – a trend that is becoming all the more common in boxing these days.
A big reason behind that is that these fights can be very lucrative. Fury could make an estimated £39m, while Ngannou is tipped to make £8m.
Despite no titles being on the line, Fury has claimed there is “more riding on this” fight than any other in his boxing career.
“I only trained six weeks for Deontay Wilder – I’m training 12 weeks for Francis. I need to be on my A-game, because there’s more on the line now than a boxing fight,” he said.
“If I lose to a number-one contender or another champion, then people would say, ‘Oh, he lost to another champion.’
“But if I lost to an MMA guy, I’m never going to be able to show my face in public again. There’s going to be ridicule and people are going to chuck it in my face forever.
“Whether the media wants to take it as a joke or not, make no mistake, Tyson Fury will leave no stone unturned and I will come in at my fittest and strongest I’ve ever been to beat this man.
“If I’m not, and I get knocked out, I want you all to laugh at me. That’s what I want, because I would’ve deserved it.
“The man’s a machine and I’ll give 100 per cent respect.”
Ngannou said: “I had a dream as a kid to become a boxer, and now I’m going to box a guy at the peak of the mountain.
“For me, usually I would not pay attention to what’s going on around me, but this is so big that I can’t stop thinking about it.
“History is about to be made in Riyadh on 28 October. It’s something that I didn’t see coming, although my dream was that someday it would happen.”