After predicting a knockout of his own Thursday night, Tyson Fury questioned Francis Ngannou’s power during their final press conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Ngannou earned a reputation as one of most powerful punchers in mixed martial arts, yet Fury isn’t so sure that his 6-foot-4, 258-pound opponent’s power will carry over to the boxing ring Saturday night at Kingdom Arena. Landing a right hand on the elusive Fury is seemingly the only chance Ngannou has to upset a much more experienced, skillful fighter.
England’s Fury has repeatedly acknowledged the danger Ngannou will present in their 10-round, non-title bout throughout this promotion. On Thursday, though, the unbeaten WBC heavyweight champion dismissed his opponent’s puncher’s chance.
“I know you can’t punch,” Fury yelled at Ngannou. “Zero power. Zero power.”
Cameroon’s Ngannou then challenged Fury to give him every opportunity to disprove Fury’s theory.
“OK, then leave your chin [in] the way,” Ngannou said. “Leave your chin [in] the way and you’re gonna find out if I got power. OK? Leave your chin [in] the way.”
Fury replied, “It’ll be there. You hit it. You hit it.”
Dewey Cooper – who, along with Mike Tyson, has trained Ngannou – then interjected, clearly tired of hearing from Fury and his father, John, who continually directed trash talk at Mike Tyson.
“It’s a fight going down in two days,” Cooper said. “All that talk is useless now. We shall see. We shall see. … At the end of the day, we not here tryin’ to talk. Two days, the world will see. In two days, the world will see. I’m sick of this guy.”
The 37-year-old Ngannou is 17-3 as a mixed martial artist, including 12 knockouts. He has not been knocked out, as each of his three defeats were unanimous points losses.
The 35-year-old Fury is confident he will become the first fighter to stop Ngannou inside the distance, albeit in a different sport.
“You’re gonna know what it feels like to get knocked spark out,” Fury said. “For the first time … your first knockout loss.”
The 35-year-old Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs) has won each of his past four fights by knockout or technical knockout, including a violent 11th-round demolition of rival Deontay Wilder to end their third fight in October 2021 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The Manchester native, a 20-1 favorite according to FanDuel sportsbook, hasn’t fought since last December 3, when he beat another huge underdog, England’s Dereck Chisora (34-13, 23 KOs), by 10th-round technical knockout at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.
If Fury wins Saturday night, he could oppose Oleksandr Usyk in their title unification fight as soon as December 23 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh. Ukraine’s Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs), who owns the IBF, IBO, WBA and WBO belts, and Fury could officially announce the date of their fight in the ring if Fury emerges from the Ngannou bout without any injuries that could delay his much more significant clash with Usyk.
Fury-Ngannou is the main event of a TNT Sports Box Office pay-per-view show in the United Kingdom (£21.95; 7 p.m. BST). ESPN will distribute Fury-Ngannou as the headliner of a pay-per-view event in the United States ($79.99; 2 p.m. EDT; 11 a.m. PDT).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.