Ngannou makes his boxing debut against heavyweight champion Fury in October and Tyson has offered to help the former UFC star train for the fight
Boxing legend Mike Tyson has offered his services to Francis Ngannou ahead of his fight against Tyson Fury.
Former UFC heavyweight champion Ngannou makes his ring debut on October 29 against ‘The Gypsy King’ in Saudi Arabia. The fight will take place over 10 three-minute rounds and will go on both men’s professional records. Ngannou will secure a career-high payday for the crossover bout after earning just $600,000 for his final UFC title defence.
‘Iron Mike’ was recently asked by ES News about the possibility of training Ngannou for the fight, to which he replied: ” I would like to do that, yeah. That would be cool. I like that.” Tyson also refused to count out Ngannou’s chances of beating Fury despite the massive experience gap between them, adding: “I think anything is possible. He has a hard punch.”
It’s unclear if Ngannou will prepare to fight Fury at his MMA gym, Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas, or search for a traditional boxing gym to train at. ‘The Predator’ has called on Tyson to train him and also thinks the heavyweight legend’s old rival Lennox Lewis could be of great help.
“I think getting some advice or some training from Mike Tyson would be good,” he told TMZ Sports. “I also think of somebody like Lennox Lewis who could be good. I love his boxing style, very basic but very sharp and efficient. One-two, all that stuff, classic but very good. I love stuff like that. One of those guys. We are definitely reaching out.”
Fury’s heavyweight title will not be on the line in the fight as Ngannou is not ranked by the WBC. Ngannou split with the UFC in January in the hopes of securing a big payday, but his chances of doing so looked slim when Fury was expected to face fellow heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk. But the undisputed fight fell through yet again and Ngannou’s gamble on himself paid off.
“It is a dream come true, we have been talking about this fight for over three years. Since before the pandemic, which is insane. Now it’s happening, so you can imagine how it feels to wait for something this long and to go through what I’ve been through to get here. This fight couldn’t have happened if I didn’t decide to take some initiative and decide to take my destiny,” he added.
“I had to make some tough decisions in my life and stand up for myself in order to get here. [Fury] better get ready for October 28 because if he is not taking this serious, I think he might be surprised and could regret it. I am coming for it all, this is my moment and what I’ve been waiting for.”
