Flabby Tyson Fury strips off for first face-off with Francis Ngannou

07 September 2023 , 18:36

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Flabby Tyson Fury strips off for first face-off with Francis Ngannou

Tyson Fury ripped off his top for his face-off with Francis Ngannou - but failed to convince his rival to do the same.

For the first time in combat sports history the lineal boxing heavyweight champion will face the lineal UFC champion in a mega-money bout to launch Riyadh Season on October 28. And the duo both came to London for a red carpet launch event, culminating in an intense face-off between the two giants.

Despite being 6'4" and weighing around 280lb outside of his UFC bouts where he had to cut under 265lb, Ngannou was the smaller man when he went head-to-head with 6'9" Fury. The pair last met over a year ago at Wembley Stadium, where they verbally agreed to fight once the MMA star was out of his restrictive contract.

Tyson Fury takes on Francis Ngannou (Getty Images)

Fury, who was his usual flabby self once he had removed his shirt and jacket, said: "To get to this point is astonishing. I'm honoured to be part of it, I'm honoured Francis is part of it. I don't underestimate anyone; if I go to the boozer and get into a brawl with a drunken guy, he's going to hit me and he might knock me out so why wouldn't I prepare 100 per cent for an absolute killing machine? I will give Francis the respect he deserves as a warrior, a man and a world champion."

Ngannou added: "I've had the dream of being a boxer since i was a kid; not just to box but to box the guy at the top of the mountain. This thing is so big, I can't stop thinking about it. This is history about to be made; it's something I didn't see coming, even though my dream was there, I didn't see it being one of the biggest events in the world. Nobody knows exactly what is going to happen but what I know for sure is I'll be out there hunting for this guy's head to take it off, I can guarantee that."

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Fury and Ngannou's fight has proven controversial with boxing purists, who believe that the Brit should be facing Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed title. But he is expected to pocket a massive eight-figure payout which is touted to be a career-high, totalling over the £25million he made for fighting Whyte in Wembley last year.

Meanwhile, MMA fans are delighted to see Ngannou, who struggled with a brutal UFC deal that saw him earning considerably less than his boxing counterparts, finally get a chance to make eight-figures. He was paid a base purse of just $600,000 for his last world title defence against Ciryl Gane in January of last year, while Fury would earn almost 40 times that number.

But the Cameroonian has already signed a mega-money deal with MMA's No.2 promotion PFL for his return to the cage, which will take place next year regardless of the result against Fury. On the other hand, the WBC champion is likely to pursue the undisputed title should he win on October 28 as expected.

Donagh Corby