Former world champion Carl Froch has labelled the Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou fight a "clown show."
On Tuesday it was announced that former MMA champion Ngannou would meet current WBC title holder Fury in the ring, though the conditions of the fight are not yet entirely clear.
There have been crossover fights in the past, but Fury is arguably at the top of his game, as is Ngannou, while Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather’s famous PPV in 2017 was the way that Mayweather chose to bring down the curtain on his professional career.
Speaking to Genting Casino, Froch was left unimpressed.
He said: “Fury and Ngannou is a load of rubbish. The only reason that fight is happening is because he's got a Netflix series coming out and a crossover fight fits well into a Netflix show. I think Fury is more interested in the glitz and glamour around his own Netflix show than fighting anyone else, but Tyson Fury can do whatever he wants.
“He had that trilogy with Deontay Wilder, he beat Wladimir Klitschko, he's the main man in the heavyweight division. If Tyson Fury says it's Tuesday, it's Tuesday, no-one is going to argue with him. But Fury-Ngannou is a load of rubbish, not interested at all, not in the slightest, because it's not a boxing match.
“I'm interested in MMA and the UFC, but crossover fights don't work. Mayweather proved that when he fought McGregor, it was a mismatch, and it will always be a mismatch when a boxer fights a mixed martial artist in the boxing ring and vice versa if a boxer jumps into the cage.
"If the WBC calls a mandatory and he's not fulfilling his mandatory obligations then they should strip him but if he's not been ordered to fight, he's within his right to keep hold of that belt and go and do this celebrity clown show that he's involved in."