Unfortunately for Francis Ngannou, he didn’t have the leverage to get a rematch clause in his contract for his fight with Tyson Fury.
Despite that he got knocked down during the third round and narrowly won their 10-round, non-title bout by split decision Saturday night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Fury isn’t obligated to fight Ngannou again, the way he was when he stopped rival Deontay Wilder in the seventh round of their one-sided rematch in February 2020. Fury expressed interest in facing Ngannou a second time, though, during his post-fight interview in the ring with ESPN’s Bernardo Osuna.
“Listen, I would like to do it again down the line,” Fury said. “And I’m sure Francis would like to do it as well. But we got this man [Oleksandr Usyk] to deal with next, and that’s what’s next for us.”
A rematch with Ngannou makes little sense for Fury, of course, because he will make another enormous sum of money for his title unification fight against Usyk, a southpaw who doesn’t punch as hard as Ngannou. England’s Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) and Ukraine’s Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs) have reportedly contractually committed to two fights for Fury’s WBC and Usyk’s IBF, IBO, WBA and WBO heavyweight titles.
Their first fight was tentatively scheduled for December 23, just eight weeks from Saturday night. Frank Warren, Fury’s co-promoter, was reluctant to commit to that date in the immediate aftermath of Fury’s victory over Ngannou because Fury suffered a small cut on the lower left side of his forehead and endured a much tougher fight than they anticipated.
Beyond his two fights with Usyk, the 35-year-old Fury could score another huge payday for finally fighting Anthony Joshua (26-3, 23 KOs), the former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO champion who lost back-to-back decisions to Usyk in September 2021 and August 2022. Fury-Joshua would still be the biggest boxing match that could be made on British soil, even if Fury were also to lose two fights to Usyk.
Ngannou, meanwhile, told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto after his close loss to Fury that he intends to continue competing in boxing. The former UFC heavyweight champion is contractually committed to PFL for mixed martial arts matches, but he can continue to make seven figures for boxing bouts based on how he performed against the heavily favored Fury.
Saudi investors guaranteed Ngannou $10 million for his pro boxing debut against Fury, who reportedly was paid more than $50 million for facing a comparative novice.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.