The History behind the Battle of the Baddest: Fury vs Ngannou

Tyson Fury

The Gypsy King made his professional debut at the age of 20 years old, making an impressive start to his boxing career with a first-round TKO win against Bela Gyongyosi in Nottingham.

Fury would win his first Boxing Championship in 2009 at Brentford where he won by Decision against John McDermott for the English Heavyweight title, despite showing a poor performance. Tyson Fury would fight for the English Heavyweight title again a year later against the same opponent to settle the controversy as he won by TKO in the ninth round after knocking down McDermott three times.

The Wythenshawe-born fighter would continue to stay undefeated as he faced his next big challenge in Boxing, Derek Chisora. Chisora was also undefeated at the time whilst owning the British and Commonwealth Heavyweight titles. After a 12-round war, Fury would earn the victory by decision and became the first Boxer to beat Derek Chisora.

After achieving two Corner Stoppage victories, one against Christian Hammer and a rematch against Derek Chisora, the Gypsy King was set to face World Heavyweight Champion, Wladimir Klitschko.

These two top Boxers would fight for the unified Heavyweight title; IBF, IBO, WBO, and WBA Super Heavyweight titles. Klitschko was a big favourite to win the fight as Fury would look for the biggest win of his career. After 12 hard-fought rounds, Tyson Fury would become the unified Heavyweight World Champion and make Boxing history.

After defeating Klitschko at the end of 2015, Fury had no motivation to carry on the sport as he felt he had achieved everything as this soon caused him to put on loads of weight and suffered with bipolar depression, stating that he did not want to live anymore.

After finding the motivation to comeback and fight against WBC Heavyweight Champion, Deontay Wilder, the Gypsy King would return in 2018 to prove he could still be the greatest fighter to this day.

After claiming a victory in his hometown of Manchester and a win in Belfast, Tyson Fury was set to face the Bronze Bomber in December 2018. The 12-round title bout would be set in Los Angeles as Fury had the opportunity of reclaiming the title as World Champion.

After 11 rounds, it was possible to say that the English Boxer was going to dethrone the champion. That opinion would soon change as Deontay Wilder hit a wicked combination to knock down the challenger hard on his back. Amazingly, Fury had risen back up to his feet to beat the count of 10 and continue fight which completely shocked the Boxing community. Unfortunately for the Gypsy King, the result would end in a Split Draw meaning Wilder would retain the title.

Fury would face Deontay Wilder again in a rematch after being victorious twice from his last two Boxing bouts. On 22^nd February 2020, Tyson Fury became WBC Heavyweight Champion and the first fighter to defeat Deontay Wilder after winning via a seventh round Corner Stoppage.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, The Gypsy King would fight the Bronze Bomber for a third time in the trilogy. The trilogy fight was action-packed as both men scored two knockdowns. Going into the 11^th round, Wilder looked gassed out as it was unclear if he would be able to continue, but the questions would be answered if the fight would end by stoppage as Fury would knock-out the Alabama-born fighter and remain champion.

Tyson Fury still remains the WBC Heavyweight champion to this day after getting sixth-round TKO win over Dillian Whyte at Wembley Stadium, followed by a 10^th round TKO victory in a trilogy fight against Derek Chisora.

Francis Ngannou

The Predator began his MMA debut on 30^th November 2013 when he was fighting in the French promotion, 100% Fight. He secured his first victory with an Armbar Submission win over Rachid Benzina in the first-round.

Ngannou continued to fight at 100% Fight, sadly losing by Unanimous Decision in his second professional MMA fight but began a winning streak with a KO win and an Arm Triangle Submission victory.

The Cameroon-born fighter had two more fights, with a Submission and TKO win, before kickstarting his UFC career. Ngannou made a statement on his UFC debut after getting a KO victory over Luis Henrique in the second round, making him a potential UFC Heavyweight contender.

After getting two more knockouts’ victories and a Submission win, Francis Ngannou would face former UFC Heavyweight champion, Andrei Arlovski, winning by TKO in under two minutes of the very first round.

Francis became the #4 Heavyweight contender as his next fight would be against #1 contender, Alistair Overeem. This fight would be at UFC 218 where Ngannou would be featured in his first-ever UFC PPV, fighting in the Co-Main Event. The Predator knocked out Overeem with a brutally vicious uppercut that shocked the whole crowd in Detroit, Michigan.

The impressive KO win earned him a shot for UFC gold after becoming the #1 Heavyweight contender. The knockout artist would face Stipe Miocic to try and win the belt as the fight would be the Main Event at UFC 220. Unfortunately for Ngannou, he would lose by Unanimous Decision as Miocic successfully defended Heavyweight title for the third time.

The Cameroon-mixed martial artist would have more bad luck after losing another Unanimous Decision, this time to Derrick Lewis. This fight would be a very anticipated Heavyweight bout as both men were incredible knockout artists, but the fight would be described as a ‘snoozefest’ with a lot of fans disappointed.

The Predator would begin his mission to redeem his recent form and earn himself back into a title fight. Ngannou picked up a 45-second TKO victory against Curtis Blaydes before knocking out former UFC Heavyweight Champion, Cain Velasquez, in just 26 seconds.

Another first-round knockout win against Junior Dos Santos, followed by a 20-second KO victory against Jairzinho Rozenstruik at UFC 249 would earn him another shot for the Heavyweight Championship.

Francis Ngannou faced Stipe Miocic in a rematch for UFC gold as he had a second opportunity of becoming the King of the Heavyweights. The Cameroonian would pick up his fifth consecutive knockout win to become UFC Champion after finishing Stipe Miocic early in the second round.

At UFC 270, Ngannou would face former teammate and Interim UFC Heavyweight Champion, Ciryl Gane, to make his first title defence. The Predator had suffered an injury with his knee ligaments three and a half weeks before his fight. Surprisingly, Francis won by Unanimous Decision, making it his first-ever decision victory, as he spent the majority of the fight grappling.

On 14^th January 2023, the Cameroonian knockout artist parted ways with the UFC after he could not agree with a contract renewal with UFC president, Dana White. Months later, Ngannou would join the MMA promotion, Professional Fighters League (PFL).

How the two fighters came face-to-face

It all started after Tyson Fury's KO victory over Dillian Whyte at Wembley Stadium in April 2022. Francis Ngannou did spectate the Boxing event at ringside which Fury must have known or noticed in the fight. During his post-fight interview, the Gypsy King pulled Ngannou into the interview whilst he had just entered the ring as he would promise an 'explosive fight' with the current UFC Heavyweight Champion at the time.

The Predator clearly liked the idea of boxing the greatest Heavyweight of today but would have a different idea for the nature of the fight when he revealed in the interview. The Cameroonian believed that it would be a hybrid fight with different types of rules, such as wearing MMA gloves instead of Boxing gloves. 

Despite the English-fighter nodding in supposed agreement, the hybrid pitch for the fight would never happen as it would later be confirmed that the fight would stick to official rules of professional boxing.

The cross-over event would be confirmed after the sanctioned bout between Fury and Usyk, which would be an undisputed championship fight, failed to go through.

There were some speculations that the Gypsy King may fight the former Heavyweight Boxing Champions, Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz Jr, but the plans for that fight did not look like they were going to happen anytime soon.

Some people believed that UFC Heavyweight Champion, Jon Jones, may have fought Fury after the two fighters were going back and forth on Twitter as to who would win a fight. Ngannou was originally planned to fight Jon Jones as well at UFC 285 but that was if he accepted a new contract which never happened as he may have had full focus on the Tyson Fury fight.