The highly anticipated crossover boxing bout between Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou is only a couple of hours away. Prior to being matched against the former UFC heavyweight champion, Tyson had somewhat of a strange year. The Brit knocked out Derek Chisora in December 2022, and since then, he has been searching for opponents.
Although he was matched against Oleksandr Usyk, the plans fell apart due to a failure in contractual negotiations. Meanwhile, Francis Ngannou vacated his UFC heavyweight title and signed with the PFL due to issues with CEO Dana White. Nonetheless, both fighters are slated to share the ring in Riyadh this weekend.
Now that the fans know about the event and its fighters, let’s take a look at the promoters who put together this event. The two main promotions working together to promote the event are the Queensberry promotion and the GIMIK fight promotion.
Tyson Fury vs Francis Ngannou fights later today.
Who do you think will win? pic.twitter.com/HdDGpylhwY
— Wîñço (@Winco_3) October 28, 2023
Queensberry Promotion is run by English promoter Frank Warren, who will be promoting Tyson Fury in his upcoming bout. The Gypsy King signed a multi-fight deal with Warren in 2018 for his comeback. Warren also made sure to get the 33-0-1 fighter a deal under which he will be co-promoted by Top Rank promoter Bob Arum.
GIMIK fight promotions, on the other hand, are the brainchild of Francis Ngannou, who created them for his upcoming bout against Fury. Many believe the Cameroonian fighter specifically ran with the GIMIK name to spite former boss Dana White.
Although the promoters do play a huge role in promoting the fight, the managers play an even more crucial role in a fighter’s life. Let’s take a look at the different personas managing both fighters.
Who are the managers of Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou?
While promoters do play an important role in promoting their fighter’s events, managers are the ones that handle everything else. Francis Ngannou is currently managed by Marquel Martin, who, according to his LinkedIn profile, worked at UFC as well. Martin’s past working experience and his time in the UFC have certainly taught him a lot, as he helps the former champion bag million-dollar deals.
In one of his recent interviews, Marquel even stated that his client, Francis Ngannou, will be making a ton of money from his fight with Fury. The fight purse will be greater than the combined purses of Ngannou’s career in the UFC. Apart from managing fighters, Martin was also a contestant on the popular reality TV shows Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise.
Meanwhile, Tyson Fury has a huge management team that takes care of different aspects of his professional career. Spencer Jones and James Ward take care of commercial management and operations in Fury’s team. They manage to scope out different business opportunities and ensure that the Gypsy King racks in huge sums of money.
Shane and Hughie Fury manage Tyson’s fight camp and make sure that he has all the necessary resources to perform his best in his fights. Finally, the nearly 7-foot boxer has Navid Saliman to manage his suits and social media presence.
With a whole troupe of managers behind the WBC Champion, he will be racking up hundreds of millions for his upcoming fights. However, he has to go through one of the hardest hitters first. Will Tyson Fury be able to make quick work of Ngannou? Let us know your opinions in the comments below.