Former heavyweight boxing world champion Deontay Wilder who is widely considered the greatest knockout artist in the history of boxing will possibly face former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou in a very rare two-fight deal. Wilder, who was last seen inside the ring against ‘The Gypsy King’ Tyson Fury back in 2021 will probably fight Ngannou inside the ring first and then move to the octagon, fighting under MMA rules.
Talking about the possibility of this happening in reality, ‘The Bronze Bomber’ said “Ngannou don’t want to do MMA, I told him we can do MMA and boxing, I want to be the first to do that, but he said he’s going to want to stick to boxing. And I mean, I respect that, he said he don’t want to break me! I always been a ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ type of person, his power is real.”
Francis Ngannou shocked the entire MMA world when he decided to leave the UFC due to various unspecified reasons. Ngannou has a professional MMA record of 17-3 and he last competed in January 2022 at UFC 270, fighting and defeating Ciryl Gane via unanimous decision. Since leaving the UFC, Ngannou has expressed his willingness to put on boxing gloves on various occasions. In fact, Ngannou also cut a solid promo with Tyson Fury after he defeated Dillain White back in August 2022 in London.
When will Deontay Wilder fight Ngannou?
When asked about the beginning of this whole Francis Ngannou fight possibility, Wilder said “Most definitely, I love Francis. When I met him at the UFC Apex in Vegas he was talking about doing it that time, I’m still interested in it and I would love to go to Africa for that fight. When he was with Dana [White, UFC president], me and Dana sat down and talked about it. When he brought the idea to me the whole saying was ‘if it makes dollars it makes sense’. That’s all they need to know. I know he’s doing his own thing and I’m proud of him for following his heart, doing what he feels.”
The heavyweight boxing division seems to be all stirred up right now, with some highly anticipated match-ups being made at present, one of which is this one. If this two fight deal ever comes into existence, it will surely attract a lot of eyeballs and eventually give both the fighters the big bucks they have been demanding for a long time, specially Ngannou.
