After his KO win over Dillian Whyte last night, the next challenge for WBC Heavyweight Champion, Tyson Fury appears to be UFC Heavyweight Champion, Francis Ngannou.
Both men seem certain of the matchup happening either at the end of this year or at the start of 2023 as Francis is still recovering from a knee injury he suffered prior to his title defence over Ciryl Gane at UFC 270 in January.
When this match was simply a rumour last year, I hoped it would be a hybrid martial arts match, like Demetrious Johnson vs Rodtang at One X so it’s fair for both parties and this appears to be the case.
I saw this proposal on twitter and thought it would be perfect for the biggest heavyweight fight in history.
I think it’s a good median between the two sports. Four minute rounds is perfect due to MMA rounds being five minutes, and boxing being three. Eight rounds seems perfect, since boxing title fights are twelve rounds yet MMA ones are five. Also between these two you won’t need 10 rounds. I think six could work but the more rounds the better. If this goes all eight rounds, which is highly unlikely, that would mean a 32 minute fight.
Who do I think will win? I think Francis has a better chance of surviving Fury’s boxing than Fury has of surviving the MMA rounds. However, Four minutes of boxing with arguably the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time is not easy. Francis has a rock solid chin though so I’d take him to survive round 1 and win by submission in round 2.
Thinking about this fight makes me think about the potential Kamaru Usman vs Canelo Alvarez fight. I know Usman wants to step into the line of fire and box Canelo, but I don’t see why they can’t have a hybrid sport match.
Francis knows in a twelve round boxing match that Fury finishes him because that’s what Fury specialises in. I don’t see why Kamaru doesn’t see it the same way.
TheWrestlingFallacy 