The second biggest talking point coming out of Saturday's boxing action centered around what Tyson Fury is going to do next. He's said that he is retiring from serious boxing competition, but has left the door open to doing other types of fights and events. "Leaving the door open" is a generous way to put things. He's basically confirmed that he is planning on doing other types of special fights or major events, but it is unclear on what exactly those plans entail. The first one that seems to be on the docket is some sort of mixed or hybrid rules fight with current UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou. Some of you may have read the title of this post and thought I was implying that no one is interested. That really isn't the case and I'm genuinely asking whether people want to see this fight or not. I don't have many close friends who are also into combat sports, so my reach is limited beyond just my own thoughts. My current stance before diving into it a bit more is that I'm sort of indifferent to the idea. I'm not disinterested enough to not watch, but I'm definitely not excited for it either. If this is the fight we get, then I'll be ready to watch it, but I would much prefer that we got other fights instead. I'll try to go through why each man would want this fight and why they might want to do something else and see if I can even change my own mind.
At first glance, this fight makes a ton more sense for Tyson Fury than it does Francis Ngannou. Fury is a big enough draw that he is going to make a similar amount of money no matter who he fights. Fury has also raked in enough big purses in his career that fighting is a choice for him at this point and he doesn't have to do anything he doesn't want to. With money out of the conversation, it is just a decision based on what Tyson Fury prefers to do. We talked yesterday about all of the struggles he went through in the midpoint of his career and I wouldn't blame him if the stress and time away from his family is just too much to continue. Walking away from boxing with his health mostly intact and plenty of money to continue living his life the way he wants with his family is really all he could've asked for. The reason Fury would want this fight is that he can get the attention and the payday with a fraction of the risk and work required. That is no slight at Francis Ngannou, but let's be honest with ourselves. Unless this mixed rules bout allows for takedowns, which it most certainly will not, Fury is winning that fight. I don't care if they use Big Bopper toy gloves, 16 oz gloves, 4 oz gloves, bare knuckle, or duct tape pillows to their hands. It doesn't matter if the fight is in a cage, a ring, a pit of mud, or my living room. There is no way that Tyson Fury loses to Francis Ngannou in a fight that only allows punches. If we see rules that allow for kicks or wrestling then we have a different type of fight on our hands, but I don't see how or why Fury agrees to that. Let's try to keep this as simple and as respectful as possible. Francis Ngannou would not be favored in a boxing match against either of Fury's last two opponents, Deontay Wilder and Dillian Whyte. Francis Ngannou would not be favored against either of Fury's presumed next opponents should he stay with championship level boxing, Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk. This is simply an easier fight for Fury than he last few have been and his next couple would've been. If Fury can make the same or similar money for an easier fight, he has no reason to not do it.
The only reason Fury has to pass this up is for legacy purposes. Some fighters just treat this fight game differently and think about it in different ways. Some are here to make as much money as possible and get out as healthy as they can. Others are about honor and respect and truly love to fight. Neither is right and neither is wrong, it is just the way some people are versus the way others are. If we haven't already, I'm sure we'll hear some people arguing that Fury taking this fight is somehow disrespectful to the sport. I largely think that is nonsense, but if Fury felt that way, I couldn't blame him or tell him he's wrong for it. If he as a competitor just felt like it was beneath him to do, then he is within his right to do so. Fury could turn this down and opt to fight Usyk or Joshua as they are the next best competition and that is what Fury is about. If that is the decision he made, that would be extremely admirable as he is actively choosing the more difficult path. I don't think he is obligated to do so and I certainly won't think less of him should he choose a different route, but that is the only way that he could come to the conclusion to fight someone else besides Ngannou.
This fight is a little more curious from the Ngannou side for me. Well, I guess I see why, but maybe short sighted is the better term to use. The reason that Ngannou wants this fight is because of the payday that comes with it. That really isn't a secret. Ngannou has been underpaid for a lot of his UFC run and especially of late as he's had the belt. Now that he is champion, this is is opportunity to cash in big and I don't think anyone really blames him for jumping at it. If Francis were set to make the same $7.4 million that Dillian Whyte just got, that would be worlds more than he's every made in a single UFC fight. In fact, it might be more than he's made in his all of his fights combined. It probably is more to be honest. If you're finding this from the MMA side, you already know Ngannou's story. If you're from the boxing side, then to keep it short, Ngannou comes from a background that is about as poor as it can get. He worked in sand mines as a child and eventually escaped his home country in Africa and was able to make it to France before eventually coming to the United States. Everything Francis has he earned through his own hard work. In the world of professional sports, $7.4 million really isn't even that much and that would be life altering for Ngannou. To make that kind of money would be almost impossible for anyone to pass up, let alone someone who came from quite literally nothing. If we're being real, someone who lives a completely normal and comfortable life would probably fight Tyson Fury for that much money, so I don't hold that against Francis even a little bit. The reason to do it is very clear and obvious.
I just tend to think that it is a short sighted way of thinking. I don't doubt that Francis could live for awhile off of that money as I'm sure he doesn't live an expensive lifestyle. I just think that he would end up missing out on opportunities. To win the UFC title after everything he's been through and defend it once, only to give it up to go fight some hybrid rules boxing would be a little disappointing for me as a fan. I'm so invested in Francis Ngannou that I don't want to see him fade away in our memories. If Francis Ngannou walks away from the UFC to do this boxing match, I don't think there's more than a single realistic way that he ever comes back to the UFC. The only way that Ngannou walks away from the UFC and then signs with them again after the boxing match is if he wins the fight. At that point, the business of having Francis back in the octagon would just be too great for any personal beef to stop it from happening. Otherwise, I don't think Francis would ever fight in the UFC again. We see how walking away with the UFC title worked out for Henry Cejudo and he didn't even go anywhere else. He just said he retired and walked away and they still won't give him a fight. Conor McGregor "left" the UFC (he went to box but was still under UFC contract) to fight Floyd Mayweather, but that was massive business. We all know Conor doesn't play by the same rules, so bringing up his name in this case means very little in my opinion. Khabib and GSP both walked away with the title, but they walked away from the entire sport, not just the promotion. They left with the belt because they retired from fighting altogether, not just to go somewhere else. There's no way that Francis walks away with the belt, loses, and then just gets welcomed back in by Dana. Nothing would be more shocking to me than for that exact thing to happen. I don't really see where he could or would go with the rest of his career after that. I'm sure he could go dominate in the PFL or Bellator, but I don't think he would be nearly as big of a star or be as popular as he would be with the UFC. I just think that being and retiring a UFC champion under the UFC banner carries a certain level of cache that just doesn't exist elsewhere. Of course, there is the possibility that Ngannou doesn't care about any of that and it is well within his right, but I think all of that comes with monetary gain as well. Maybe I'm completely wrong, but I don't think we see GSP fighting Captain America or Michael Bisping in XXX if they leave the UFC for a slightly bigger contract to fight in ONE championship. Francis is still a young man and has a lot of life to live. I know $7.4 million is a lot of money, but does he really plan on living out the next 30+ years of his life off of that one purse?
Now, don't get it twisted, I believe Francis needs to be making more and significantly more, but I think he needs to fight for that within the UFC or at least within MMA. I think going to boxing or whatever hybrid sport this would be just limits him after the Fury fight. When I say limits, I mean in things after fighting. Win or lose, he would have interest for other boxing matches and other MMA promotions, but I'm talking about the other things. I don't know that Francis gets those movie offers or all of the autograph signings and that stuff he goes and starts fighting elsewhere. He would still get some I'm sure, but I just don't think to the same extent. I guess the one way where this would make perfect sense is if Ngannou has decided that he just wants to retire after this. If this is his last fight, then none of that stuff about having to sign with another promotion matters because he wasn't interested in the first place. If Francis just wants to find the biggest payday in his last fight before he rides off into the sunset, then that makes 100% perfect sense to me. Otherwise, I think it just may be short sighted.
Part of me thinks that I may just be being a tad biased. I can't help it though, I'm still a fan like everyone else. Francis Ngannou is one of the best heavyweight mixed martial artists in the world and that is the sport that I want to see him compete in. Tyson Fury is one of the best heavyweight boxers in the world and that is what I want to see him compete in. I don't need to see those paths cross. If that is what they both decide to do want that paycheck, I can't blame them because I don't think I could turn down that kind of money, but I do selfishly want them to continue doing what they do. I want to see Francis fight Stipe again and Jon Jones, while also getting Fury vs Joshua and Usyk. Like I said, if this happens, I'm going to watch and do so happily. At the same time, if you gave me the power to make fights happen with just a snap of my fingers (contracts are automatically agreed to and all of that is taken care of), this isn't the fight I would make and I wouldn't really have to think that much about it.
What do you guys think? Do you want to see this fight? Would you watch it? If not, what do you want to see them do? How would you resolve the whole situation? Leave your thoughts and comments below. Thanks for reading and have a good one.
UPDATE:
Alright, so everything you just read was written on Sunday night before I listened to Francis Ngannou speaking on this topic on the MMA Hour. I want to leave everything I said as is for the sake of transparency, but I want to update my thoughts based on what he said. According to Ariel, I'm not an MMA fan because this isn't the fight I want to see, so I'll keep that in mind going forward. So, as someone who isn't an MMA fan, I'm still a little confused as to what Ngannou's plan is. He seems to want to sign a deal with the UFC and have them in the fold for the fight with Fury and I think that is the ideal situation for him, but I just didn't know that was really an option. Maybe Francis knows something we don't, which I'll assume he does, but I was operating under the assumption that the UFC had no interest in having Ngannou under contract and doing that fight.
I'm glad that New York Ric was on my side. He did probably a better job of articulating what I was trying to say than even I did. Me not wanting to see this fight has nothing to do with wanting to keep Ngannou down like Ariel seemed to imply. I mentioned all that Francis has been through in his entire life and how he deserves to make that big pay day. I want Francis to make his money and make as much as he can while he is active. In my opinion, Francis Ngannou doesn't have more than a punchers chance of being Tyson Fury. The one thing I really didn't quite consider or a perspective that didn't come to mind is that none of the other options for Fury are really that competitive either. If Fury is going to have to go through another fighter that has only a small chance, we may as well pick the most interesting option. Out of Usyk, Joshua, and Ngannou, Francis is most certainly the most interesting build up and hype, so that I can agree on. I guess if that is the basis on which I'm making my decision, then that is something I can get behind. My point was that I don't think a boxing match between Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou is very competitive and I would much prefer to see Francis Ngannou compete in the sport that he is the champion in. That isn't a commentary on Ngannou's money or what he went through in his past. I want to see Francis use his complete skillset and defend his title against other mixed martial artists, that's all. I hope Francis gets to do whatever he decides is best for him. That's all anyone could hope to obtain in their own lives. I hope Francis gets his contract, but, as a fan, I would just prefer to see him fighting MMA and more specifically, in the UFC.
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