After stopping Dillian Whyte in April, WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury brought over UFC heavyweight kingpin Francis Ngannou to join him in his post-fight interview. Both guys brought up the possibility of a hybrid fight, but talk has died down since the initial conversation.
The chatter ramped up on Thursday as Bob Arum, who promoted Fury's last five fights, was asked about it following the Artur Beterbiev-Joe Smith Jr. press conference. Arum still expressed interest even if it meant having to work with the UFC and President Dana White, as the promoters have a mutual disdain for one another.“(Ngannou) is still recovering from an injury, but I would love to do that fight,” Arum told a group of media members.
“Depending on Ngannou’s contract with the UFC, we need to do it with or without the UFC. But that would be a huge, huge event.
“I’m interested. Who wouldn’t be? Ngannou was (is) the heavyweight champion of the UFC and with Tyson Fury, I think it will be a huge, huge event.”
Earlier this week, Fury teased a potential comeback to the ring after saying he was retired following the Whyte clash. Arum says he knows Fury still wants to take on Ngannou.
However, while he wants to give Fury what he wants, Arum also would like Fury to battle the winner of the three-belt heavyweight title fight between Oleksandr Usyk and former two-time unified champion Anthony Joshua.
“Tyson is a very intelligent guy,” Arum said.
“He has a lot of opportunities outside of boxing, so you take it with a guy like Tyson one step at a time. So I’m optimistic, without discussing it with him, that sometime down the road, he’ll fight the winner of Joshua-Usyk, which I hope is Usyk, and he’ll fight Ngannou and maybe call it a day. But I know he loves training, and he loves being in the ring, so that’s a plus.”
Ngannou last fought at UFC 270, beating Ciryl Gane via unanimous decision to become the undisputed heavyweight champion. He is currently sidelined until at least the end of 2022 or the beginning of 2023 when he had major knee surgery after the fight.