Former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou and UFC president Dana White faced contractual issues, primarily stemming from White’s reluctance to allow Ngannou to pursue a crossover boxing match. Thus, he left the UFC to explore his options and try his hands in boxing. Now, he is going to fight boxing icon Tyson Fury for the biggest payday of his career, $10 million. Despite the fight being announced a couple of months ago, White had not commented on it up till now. However, he has now finally reacted to the heavyweight crossover in a recent post-fight press conference.
The UFC head honcho had previously promoted one of the biggest boxing crossovers: Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather in 2017. However, due to his disapproval, Ngannou couldn’t explore his boxing options. Regardless, ‘The Predator’ is now scheduled to fight ‘The Gypsy King’ on October 28th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Dana White reacts to Francis Ngannou vs. Tyson Fury
A section of the combat sports community casted doubts over Ngannou’s career after he left the world’s leading MMA promotion UFC. However, the Cameroonian-French fighter proved them wrong by recently signing a massive deal with PFL and is now finally making his boxing wishes come true.
UFC head honcho sat down to face the media following UFC 293 last weekend. During the press briefing, one question was about his thoughts on Ngannou vs. Fury, which was later posted by Jed Goodman on Twitter. White replied:
“Good for him“
Dana White asked about Tyson Fury’s comments from his press conference this week and his thoughts on Ngannou getting the fight. pic.twitter.com/fjMw08ynwY
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) September 10, 2023
Although the UFC president was not keen on the fight, he had some alternate plans for Fury. During the same interview, White also gave his thoughts on UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones vs. Tyson Fury MMA fight.
White on Jones vs. Fury
The MMA crossover between the current UFC heavyweight champion Jones and the ‘Gypsy King’ was in the talks for quite a while, but it hasn’t yet materialized.
Moreover, the boxing legend had also revealed his ambition to fight Jon Jones after claiming to defeat Ngannou. He boldly stated that he would kick Jones’ as* if they ever fought.
In the same press conference, White spoke about Tyson’s proposal to fight Jones after Ngannou. White did not completely rule out the possibility of the fight. But also didn’t give an exact statement on it. He said:
“I don’t know. We’ll see how it plays out.”
Although both these fights are exciting for the combat sports community, UFC president Dana White is only keen on one of them, Jones vs. Fury. Regardless of his beef with Ngannou, White didn’t seem to be irked about the Predator’s upcoming boxing debut.
