Frank Warren believes that Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou will not go the distance.
Warren attended Saturday night’s WBO interim championship fight between Joe Joyce and Zhilei Zhang at Wembley Arena, and speaking after the fight, he told TNT Sport his thoughts on the scheduled heavyweight clash.
The next big heavyweight fight for Warren will be the WBC champion taking on former UFC heavyweight titlist Ngannou, in Saudi Arabia, in October.
There will be no belt on the line but there is plenty of interest in the clash as a novelty event, with a few people giving the MMA man a puncher’s chance if little else.
For his part, Warren thinks that the two athletes will use all their power in a relatively brief exchange, and he favours Fury in the match-up.
He said: “It's a battle of the baddest, best in their respective sports. It’s simply going to be a shootout. I simply can’t see Ngannou outshooting Fury, I can’t see that.
“I’ve watched a lot of his fights in UFC, he’s got a lot of power, he’s strong. The only way I can see it is if he can rough him out and let the shots go. If you look at Tyson’s last four fights, he’s gone toe to toe with massive punchers like Deontay Wilder, so I think you’re going to get a massive shootout.
“Ain’t going to last long, but while it lasts, it’s going to be exciting. It’s going to be a huge event.”