MMA puncher Francis Ngannou is smiling from ear to ear after finalizing a deal to face WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in a boxing match.
Their fight was officially announced last week, for October 28th in Saudi Arabia.
Ngannou, a former UFC heavyweight champion, has been trying to face Fury for some time.
Unfortunately, Ngannou was unable to make that fight a reality until his contract expired with the UFC.
UFC President Dana White rejected the idea of Ngannou vs. Fury.
Ngannou’s heated split with UFC was highly publicized.
According to White, he offered Ngannou a large contract to remain with the company – and claimed in several interviews that Ngannou would never make that kind of money elsewhere.
However, Ngannou’s handlers indicate that he’s going to make more money with Fury than he’s made in his entire UFC career.
There are circulated reports claiming that Ngannou is going to make more than $8 million for the boxing match with Fury. For his last fight with the UFC, he made $600,000.
Ngannou revealed that White had actually sent Fury a contract to have a cross-sport clash with current UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones – but the terms were rejected.
“For some reason, I always prove Dana White wrong — even when he’s on my side,” Ngannou told SiriusXM. “I always prove him wrong, every single time. This is just our story.
“They were ready to do Jon Jones and Tyson Fury in MMA — why couldn’t they do Ngannou and Fury in boxing? I don’t know. I think [he] did that to try to take the fight away from me, and Dana did sent out a contract [for the Jones fight]. He sent out the contract, which I think was very embarrassing because that contract was rejected, and [Fury] signed mine for the GIMIK Fight Promotions.
“It’s not a secret that so many people wanted me to fail. They don’t want me to succeed, it’s not a secret, it’s quite obvious, and you all know about it.”