Ahead of the huge heavyweight title fight this coming Saturday, Francis Ngannou has had his final say on the matchup, predicting his winner.
When Francis Ngannou emerged in the boxing world last year, fans were shocked that his debut outing was booked against then heavyweight champion, Tyson Fury.
‘The Predator’ almost pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the sports history dropping Fury in the third round, subsequently taking him to an extremely close split decision.
Francis Ngannou predicts the huge heavyweight rematch between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury
After narrowly avoiding defeat against the former UFC heavyweight champion, ‘The Gypsy King’ set up a huge undisputed title fight against Oleksandr Usyk.
The two clashed this past May, with the Ukrainian handing the Brit his first-ever loss after an incredible 12-round war.
Ahead of their rematch this coming Saturday, Fury has revealed that he is currently over 280lbs and plans to come in at his career heaviest weight.
Against Ngannou, Fury was heavily criticized for his underpreparation after he weighed in at 277.7lbs, which is currently his heaviest fight night weight.
After sharing the ring with the usually light-footed heavyweight, Ngannou has offered his final prediction for the huge rematch in Riyadh.
“With what I saw last time I think it’s really hard to have a different result,” Ngannou told talkSPORT.
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“Yeah, I mean, it might not be a knockout or something, but I think Usyk has a very slick (style). But don’t count Tyson out.
“I think he has good body work, good movement. He definitely doesn’t look like he can move very well, but he’s very athletic and then very fluid with his punches, fast. I mean he’s a much bigger guy than Usyk.
“I hope this time he doesn’t get surprised and start trying to press or not get pressed like the last time,” he continued.
Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk face-off for over 10 minutes in the longest boxing staredown ever
This past Thursday, the two heavyweights took part in a final press conference in Riyadh to promote the fight, joined by some other fighters on the undercard.
After the two remained extremely respectful of each other throughout their fight camps, they faced off one last time before stepping into the rings with each other again.
Fans were left stunned when the two stared into each other’s souls for over 10 minutes, with Frank Warren claiming that it was the longest staredown in boxing history.
The two were then separated by members of their teams after Fury started hurling abuse at the Ukrainian as things began to get a little bit heated.