By Ian S Palmer
Unbeaten WBC Heavyweight Champion Tyson Fury of England will taking on MMA fighter Francis Ngannou of Cameroon in a 10-round match this Saturday, October 28th. The fight from Saudi Arabia can be seen live in America on ESPN+, in the UK on TNT Box Office and on DAZN pay per view and other pay per view outlets in other nations. Fury last fought in December when he stopped Dereck Chisora in the 10th round while this will be the first boxing match for Ngannou.
The 35-year-old Fury of Manchester, is best known for his controversial trilogy against Deontay Wilder (two wins and a draw) and his only other true moment of glory as a pro boxer which came in November, 2015 when he upset an aging Wladimir Klitschko by unanimous decision to win the IBF, WBO, IBO, WBA and lineal world titles. However it was arguably the worst heavyweight title fight in history. After beating Klitschko, Fury was soon stripped of his belts and suspended for drug use, but still does lay claim to the lineal heavyweight crown as well as the WBC version.
Fury is one of the bigger heavyweights out there as he stands 6-feet-9-inches tall with a wingspan of 85 inches. He’ll enter the ring with a mark of 33-0-1 with 24 Ko’s and has 220 rounds under his belt since turning pro in 2008 following a good amateur career. He has better-than-average power as 72.7 per cent of his wins have come by way of stoppage and has gone the distance in four of his 10 outings. Fury possesses good, but awkward and unconventional boxing skills and has been been dropped by Steve Cunningham, Neven Pajkic and Wilder during his career which makes his chin a slight question mark.
Fury’s biggest wins were definitely against Wilder and Klitschko but Klitschko basically gave his titles away by not engaging with him. Other than that, he’s beaten some pretty good journeymen along the way such as Chisora, Whyte, Francesco Pianeta, Otto Wallin, Christian Hammer, Joey Abell, Cunningham, Kevin Johnson, Marcelo Luiz Nascimento and Vinny Maddalone. Since turning pro Fury has also captured the English, Commonwealth, British, Irish, European, WBO Inter-Continental and WBO International Heavyweight Titles.
As for the 37-year-old Ngannou, he now resides in Las Vegas, Nevada and enlisted the help of former world champion Mike Tyson to help prepare him for his first boxing match. Ngannou is known as a professional mixed martial artist who’s currently signed to the Professional Fighters League and is well known for competing as a heavyweight in the UFC, where he was the reigning Heavyweight Champion when he decided to leave in January of this year.
He’s listed as being 6-feet-4-inches tall with an 83-inch reach which sees him give up five inches in height to Fury along with two inches in reach. Ngannou is known for his power as he turned pro in 2013 and his current MMA record reportedly stands at 17-3 with 12 of his wins coming by knockout, four by submission and one by decision. This means 70.5 per cent of his wins have come by knockout.
Prediction…
It’s hard to predict these types of crossover fights these days as most of them are treated as exhibition bouts which basically means they’re glorified sparring sessions with nobody wanting to get hurt. If they do decide to put some power behind their punches then it could be a different story. Fury of course has the edge in boxing skills and size while Ngannou arguably has more power and is in better shape. I have no doubt that just about any heavyweight out there has the potential to drop Fury if they land on his chin, but the problem is keeping him on the canvas as he has a habit of getting up just before the count reaches 10. Ngannou needs to make sure this isn’t the case if he does happen to deck him. Take this fight for what it is, which is an exhibition that could turn nasty and it apparently won’t go onto Fury’s official pro boxing record. I guess the only way to find out if it’s going to have an edge to it is to tune in. If they do decide to throw leather with bad intentions we should see Fury win by decision or Ngannou stop him.
