WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury 33-0-1 (24) has vowed to knock out boxing debutant and former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou in their 10-round non-title fight in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia this Saturday night.
Victory for the 35-year-old Brit will pave the way for a four-belt unification bout against 36-year-old Ukrainian southpaw Oleksandr Usyk 21-0 (14), who holds the WBA, WBO, IBF and Ring Magazine heavyweight championships.
Fury is confident that the 37-year-old Ngannou lacks the boxing experience and ability to trouble him.
“How do I prepare for a guy like this? It’s pretty difficult, but in America, we say a statement like this, ‘I’m gonna knock a motherfucker out!’ And that’s how we do it,” Fury said.
“I’ve been working with [trainer] SugarHill [Steward] to knock him out cold on Saturday night and I have no doubt in my mind that I will knock him out…
“He’s a big, strong guy. Obviously, he’s got a good punch. But so am I. I’m a big, strong guy. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be the world heavyweight champion. But I believe there’s levels to the game. And he’s going to find out my level on Saturday night.”
Ngannou, who was born in Cameroon but hold French citizenship, isn’t concerned about Fury’s reputation or achievements.
“This is a dream come true,” Ngannou said. “And I remember four years ago, when I first met Mike Tyson, my only request was for him to be in my corner if I fight Tyson Fury.
“People thought I was losing it. They thought I was crazy. They thought it would never happen. But here we are… we got Mike Tyson in and the first thing he said that stuck in my mind is when he said, ‘Listen, he has two hands and two feet like you.’ And I got that. And that’s enough for Saturday night.
“Tyson Fury is definitely the best in boxing, but that’s stopping on Saturday night.”
Despite the fight looking like a terrible mismatch on paper, Fury insists Ngannou is a live underdog and says that he is taking him seriously.
“You can’t listen to the betting odds, you can’t listen to what the pundits say or what the boxing people or anybody [says], because they’re not in there on the night,” Fury said on The MMA Hour.
“And if you start listening to people who are not boxing, then that’s the time you fail. I don’t take anybody lightly. I’ve seen so many times in the sport where people fight people they’re supposed to beat and they’re always looking at the bigger picture.
“I’ll use Anthony Joshua as an example. There was always talk of him fighting me or [Deontay] Wilder. He fights Andy Ruiz on two weeks’ notice and he ends up getting knocked out.
“The odds going in were astronomical, everybody thought he was going to smoke the guy – all the boxing experts, all the pundits, all the media, everybody – and what happens? He gets knocked spark out. Then he goes home crying in defeat.
“I never, ever do that. If I was fighting somebody in a local bar and I knew I had to fight the guy in six weeks – a guy not even from a combat sport – I would train hard because you never know what the guy is going to bring. Never mind someone from a bar, I’m fighting an absolute killer in Francis Ngannou, a six-foot-four, 270-280-pound [man] who has come from the streets.
“This guy is hungry. This guy has got a point to prove. You think I’m not going to train for him and come in at 400-pounds? I don’t think so.
“I’ve trained as hard for him as I did for any other fighter I’ve ever fought. At this level, you don’t get no second chances. Better to prepare for the hardest fight ever and it not be, than to prepare for an easy fight and it’s a war.”
