Months after his departure from UFC, Francis Ngannou has finally got an opponent. However, this fight will not be inside an octagon as the heavyweight will lock horns with Tyson Fury in a boxing match. The fight is set to happen on October, 28th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
In an interview with MMA journalist Ariel Helwani, Ngannou’s manager Marquel Martin has revealed that this will be the biggest fight of his client’s career at least financially.
Francis Ngannou’s manager Marquel Martin says Ngannou is making more for the Tyson Fury fight than his UFC purses combined “by far, by multiples” 💰 #TheMMAHour
“The bag is so big, he may actually just drop it on the way to the bank.”
▶️ https://t.co/0KOuO25dO7 pic.twitter.com/4GX4OwmqYs
— MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) July 12, 2023
“The bag is so big, he may actually just drop it on the way to the bank. I don’t know what the haters are trying to say right now, I kind of just blocked it out, but they’ll just be proven wrong again. This is life changing. This is exactly what we planned and visualized so we are happy.” – said Martin.
When further questioned about this lucrative deal, the manager responded by saying that this boxing match will pay the former UFC champion more than all his fights combined.
So, one can get an idea how much of a big deal this is for Francis Ngannou. However, this is not the first time when the worlds of boxing and Mixed martial arts have come together. Former UFC champion Conor McGregor had also competed against boxing legend Floyd Mayweather in a boxing match. That particular fight was insanely popular and this too is expected to be a huge affair for both the champion fighters.
UFC allegedly wanted to sabotage Francis Ngannou vs Tyson Fury
Francis Ngannou’s manager also revealed that the heavyweight’s previous promotion did not want this big fight to happen. UFC boss Dana White had previously teased about a potential match-up between Jon Jones and Tyson Fury. However, nothing materialized as Jones did not want to participate in a boxing match and Fury was also not interested in MMA.
Marquel Martin was of the opinion that UFC always had a ‘sour taste’ when it came to Ngannou. So, this was much more than just Jones fighting Tyson Fury.
“I think they really just wanted to mess up our chances, to be quite honest. I think, for whatever reason, there’s a sour taste in their mouth when it comes to Francis. They don’t want Franics to be able to have that opportunity. I think that was clear to us for a while.” – expressed Ngannou’s manager Martin.
But all of this is left behind as the fight between the two heavyweights has been finalized and is scheduled to happen on Oct. 28th.
Francis Ngannou has not completely MMA. He is signed with the PFL promotion but will not make his debut in the organization until 2024.
Francis Ngannou UFC earnings
Francis Ngannou’s last fight was at the UFC 270 where he was defending his heavyweight title against Ciryl Gane. Reportedly, ‘The Predator’ was paid $600,000 for the fight as basic pay. Additionally, he received a share of the PPV buys which amounted to $400,000. So, he made about a million dollars from his last fight.
According to MMASalaries.com, Ngannou’s total recorded payout amounts to a total of $3,779,500.
Just to give an idea about the pay parity in boxing and UFC, Tyson Fury took home £26.2million when he knocked out Dillian White in the Wembley Stadium.