Undefeated heavyweight Jared Anderson is not ruling out the possibility of a huge upset on October 28, when the WBC world champion Tyson Fury faces Francis Ngannou in Saudi Arabia.
Ngannou, a former UFC heavyweight champion, is making his pro debut in a boxing ring. The ten round bout will be a non-title encounter.
The last time a major crossover boxing match took place was in 2017, when Floyd Mayweather came out of retirement to score a stoppage win over UFC superstar Conor McGregor.
McGregor started very fast, but after a few rounds he appeared to be exhausted, with Mayweather breaking him down for a TKO win in the tenth.
While Ngannou is a tremendous underdog in the fight, Anderson is giving the MMA veteran a puncher’s chance.
“It’s a heavyweight fight,” Anderson said to Sky Sports.
“He has a puncher’s chance at the end of the day. If he lands that punch, Tyson might not get back up. I do believe if he thinks correctly and he goes back to watch the Conor McGregor fight with Floyd [Mayweather], he’s going to try to last as long as he can and somebody who does that is going to have his power throughout the entire fight, like Charles Martin did.”
Earlier this month, Anderson overcame his toughest test to date when he picked up a ten round unanimous decision over former IBF world champion Charles Martin.
In an effort to stay very active, Anderson is already scheduled to return to the ring next month, when he faces Andriy Rudenko on August 26.
“If I could fight every month I would,” Anderson said. “In my opinion, I don’t think it’s an old-school mentality, I think it’s a mentality everyone should have.
“I think people get better as they go through the necessary fights and bright lights and everything. People have got to experience fans, crowds, lights, stuff like that enough times to know that they can be very comfortable under them.
“So I feel like if you fight more you will perform better.”