Boxing News: Francis Ngannou on Tyson Fury Rematch: "It's Going to Happen"
Both men already have their next matchups scheduled, but Francis Ngannou expects that he’ll be sharing the boxing ring with Tyson Fury again at some point in the near future.
He only competed once in 2023, but Ngannou had arguably the most impactful year of any fighter in combat sports after he walked away from the UFC as the promotion’s reigning heavyweight champion and nearly upset Fury in his professional boxing debut.
“The Predator” is set to delay his highly-anticipated debut with the PFL in favor of a boxing match with Anthony Joshua on March 8, and Ariel Helwani recently asked Ngannou if there had been any talk of an immediate rematch with Fury after the Cameroonian’s incredible performance last October.
Ngannou nearly upset Fury in his boxing debut.
(Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
“It’s going to happen,” Ngannou explained on The MMA Hour. “I mean there’s Fury and [Oleksandr] Usyk, even then we spoke about it. There’s Fury and Usyk going on, so [the Joshua fight] was like an opportunity. I was waiting for Fury, but this was the opportunity that I was happy to take, I [asked] for. And at the end of the day, this won’t take anything away from the Fury rematch.”
The heavyweight title bout between Oleksandr Usyk and Fury on February 17 is a matchup that boxing fans are eager to see, but “The Gypsy King” did take some criticism from fans when that fight was announced even before he’d stepped into the ring to take on Ngannou.
Fury has already claimed that it wasn’t his choice to announce the Usyk fight ahead of the Ngannou matchup, and “The Predator” also told Helwani that he may have to wait until the end of this year to get a second crack at his former opponent.
Fury is scheduled to take on Usyk in February.
(Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
“[The rematch has] never been right away. I think there’s even a slight chance that the ‘right away’ is the Usyk rematch. Because I think their term is even closer, our rematch term was in one year. Within one year. Which is still gonna be in October this year.”
As enticing as a rematch between Fury and Ngannou is after their closely-contested first meeting, the timeline for that fight does raise some serious questions about how the former UFC champion fits into the PFL’s plans for this year.
The 37-year-old could conceivably return to MMA in between his fight with Joshua and a potential Fury rematch, but that will largely depend on how the PFL wants to utilize its massive free agent signing in what could be a pivotal year for the promotion.
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