Promoter Frank Warren apparently doesn’t buy the logic being peddled by detractors regarding what he is assured will be a landmark financial event in boxing.
The veteran British promoter offered an animated defense of the upcoming box office curio between his charge, WBC titlist Tyson Fury, and former UFC champion Francis Ngannou on Oct. 28 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The “crossover” bout was announced by the backers as a sanctioned boxing match, despite the fact that Ngannou has never entered the boxing ring as a professional.
Warren, the head of Queensberry, which promotes Fury, took issue with the argument Fury-Ngannou is not a serious sporting competition, even if it figures to get the till whistling.
“You’re saying the guy’s not a sports man?” Warren said of Ngannou in an interview with iFLTV. “Is he not the best heavyweight in his combat sport? I’ve been watching the tapes of him. Is he not good? Is he not in the Guinness Book of Records for being the hardest puncher? This is massive. Massive.
When the fact that Ngannou, who is signed with the PFL, has never fought in a professional boxing match was brought up, Warren answered by insisting that the Cameroonian must press the action.
“He’s got to come to fight,” Warren said. “And he will do. And it’s going to be exciting.”
“I’m selling this as a massive event between the two best of their respective sports,” Warren continued. “If people don’t watch it, that speaks volumes. Let me ask you a question, if this does all the numbers that it’s expected, what does that make it? Then that’s all that we need to know then [that it’s a big event]. Because you know what they’re called? Professional sportsmen. It’s a huge, huge event. …It’s a big event. No matter which way you dress it up, this is a massive, massive event.”
Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs) had been in talks to face unified champion Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight championship for the past year but the two sides were repeatedly unable to strike a deal. Most recently, Fury and Usyk were looking into fighting each other at the end of the year in Saudi Arabia as part of a “monster” card that would also ideally feature Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder in a separate bout. It’s not clear if that fight is still on the table.
Sean Nam is the author of Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.