06 March 2024 , 13:58
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Tyson Fury confronted his old rival Francis Ngannou after the former UFC champion allegedly called him a "coward".
Ngannou competes for the second time as a professional boxer on Friday when he faces former two-time unified heavyweight world champion Anthony Joshua in Saudi Arabia. Fury will be ringside for the fight at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh as his brother Roman is competing on the undercard.
Fury, Joshua and Ngannou were all pictured alongside Cristiano Ronaldo and Saudi royal advisor Turki Alalsheikh in an unlikely setting on Tuesday night. Fury's trainer Andy Lee revealed that it almost kicked off between the Brit and Ngannou when they exchanged words about their controversial fight that Fury won last October.
"It was a bizarre scene cause there’s Justis Hunt and Kevin Serena is sitting next to each other on a couch made for two people," Lee told iFL TV. "Anthony Joshua is on one side and Tyson’s here. Ngannou came in and Tyson pulled him up straight away and said ‘Hey you, you’ve been talking about me in interviews saying I’m a coward, called me a yellow belly’.
“Ngannou in fairness was quite calm and cool. Tyson said ‘You did, saying you won the fight, I beat you’. Ngannou said: ‘No, no, no, I didn’t say that’ but Tyson said: ‘You did. What does your record say? You take care of your man and I’ll take care of my man then I’ll give it to you again.' He put it on him for a bit and it was interesting, it was good.
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Anthony Joshua, Cristiano Ronaldo, Turki Alalshikh, Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou in Saudi Arabia"When we were there, Tyson said: 'It's a bit weird isn't it, all of us being together'. There was Eddie Hearn, Frank Warren and Anthony Joshua right beside him. It wasn't a massive room but there was 20 odd fighters in the room, all these big egos and men. I suppose it was bound to happen."
Ngannou dropped heavyweight champion Fury and only lost by a single point in their crossover fight. The winner of Joshua and Ngannou's fight has been promised an undisputed world title shot against either Fury or Oleksandr Usyk and Ngannou is seemingly hoping Fury wins that fight so they can meet again.