Ngannou Makes It Clear: ‘I Will Fight Tyson Fury’

The UFC heavyweight champion wants the world to know exactly who he wants after he’s done rehabbing his knee, and it’s boxing great Tyson Fury.

Francis Ngannou is sidelined until the end of 2022 as the UFC heavyweight champ recuperates from major knee surgery. But as he rests up, he’s making sure to keep his name in the headlines by releasing a series of slickly produced videos on his YouTube channel. The most recent addition gives you a pretty good idea of what he’s looking to do next in his fighting career.

The video is entitled ‘I Will Fight Tyson Fury.’

WBC champ Fury and Ngannou have been jawing back and forth at each other for a while now. But with Ngannou potentially becoming a free agent at the end of 2022 the talk of a fight is no longer just talk. Now it feels like “The Predator” is basically asking Tyson to keep his schedule open.

“I don’t really care about what it would be, I just think it would be a fight,” Ngannou said. “Against Tyson Fury, it could be in a phone booth or in a rooftop, that fight will happen. Obviously he won’t come to MMA, that’s not something that could happen. He would get killed.”

And for those saying he has no chance against Fury in boxing?

“Basically in the heavyweight division, when you see two heavyweight people get into the octagon or in the ring, people that weigh about 270 pounds each … I mean, everybody could knock everybody out, that’s a fact.”

While Ngannou has been spending a lot of time at the UFC Performance Center rehabbing his knee, there still seems to be a lot of distance between what he wants and what the UFC is willing to give him. And that’s not just a financial thing. Ngannou has repeatedly said it’s about the power imbalance cooked into the UFC contract that bothers him — stuff like the UFC being able to effectively bench him and only give him one fight a year. And of course conditions that stop him from making an 8 figure payday in boxing.

“The UFC and I, we have to really sit down and talk real business,” Ngannou said in this new video. “But this time with a real consideration, because they have to take me seriously.”

“I feel very happy and at peace with my choices,” he said. “I don’t want anything to dictate my behavior or my choices, unless it’s my feelings. I am the undisputed heavyweight champion.”