The talk of the heavyweight division is now a fight between WBC heavyweight champion and lineal champion Tyson Fury to agree to face former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou which will take place as a boxing match in Saudi Arabia on October 28. This matchup has caused already caused a lot of opinions to be made especially since Ngannou has no professional boxing experience.
Boxing Hall of Famer Carl Froch can be added to the list of fighters who do not approve of the bout, as Froch gave his take recently to TalkSport.
“Muhammad Ali fought a wrestler at the end of his career, but he’d already fought [Joe] Frazier, and everyone else who was lined up, [George] Foreman, all the big hitters in the division," said Froch to TalkSport. "He’d done it. He’d had his career, and then he had a bit of a testimonial fight or joke shop fight. Whatever you want to call it, it’s not a boxing match. It’s an exhibition, entertaining type of fight.”
Froch's dismay seems to come from the fact that Oleksandr Usyk the WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight holds three of the four heavyweight titles, and yet, Fury has opted to face Ngannou, essentially a novice boxer, who is famous, in a sanctioned boxing event, that seemingly is a mismatch on paper. Froch though understands that boxing is a business and the decision was a business decision.
"Yes, I can understand why he is doing it,” Froch stated. "I get it, and I’m not going to say I wouldn’t do it because I would. If I’m being offered whatever, is it £50 million? Silly money, he’s a prize-fighter."
Froch feels that Fury has an obligation to the sport itself as a world champion and that he needs to face a better opponent than a former MMA champion with a high-profile name, who is seemingly outgunned from the start. As Froch feels this is simply an extension of what we saw when Floyd Mayweather fought Conor McGregor.
“As a WBC world heavyweight champion, he’s got an obligation to do better than Ngannou," said Froch. "We saw what happened with [Floyd] Mayweather and Conor McGregor. It was a mismatch. Mayweather was holding him up, taking his time and making a show of it.”
