By Jim Calfa: Heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs) weighed in at a slightly rotund 277.7 lbs, while his much trimmer-looking opponent Francis Ngannou came in 272.1 pounds on Friday for their headliner this Saturday night in Saudi Arabia. Their event will be shown on PPV on DAZN, Live on ESPN+ & TNT Sports PPV. The event starts at 2:00 p.m. ET this Saturday, October 28th.
Fury had to lose a lot of weight to get down to 277 lbs, as he let himself go physically after his last title defense of his WBC heavyweight title against Dereck Chisora last December.
Thus far, Fury has gotten away with getting fat between fights, but as a professional athlete, you can only get away with poor eating habits for so long before it comes back to bite you on the backside.
Fury was younger when he took off over 100 pounds to launch a comeback after sitting outside of the ring for 2 1/2 years after his upset win over 39-year-old Wladimir Klitschko in 2015. Whether Fury can get away with his yoyo dieting at 35 remains to be seen.
Granted, Fury has got a novice that he’s facing in Ngannou on Saturday, but still, when you pig out and become obese repeatedly between fights, it eventually catches up to you, and this might be the time.
During the face-off, Fury stuck his head up against Ngannou and pushed him back. Appearing annoyed, Francis then shoved the 35-year-old Fury back.
Ngannou, an MMA former champion, will be making his debut in boxing, and not many are giving him a chance of winning. He has a puncher’s chance if he can connect with one of his big right hands, and that’s not going to be easy because Fury is defensively difficult to hit.
Also, he takes a pretty good punch. Deontay Wilder had Fury down several times but couldn’t finish him in their three contests.
On the undercard, Arslanbek Makhmudov (17-0, 16 KOs) weighed in at 260 lbs, and his opponent Junior Anthony Wright (20-4-1, 17 KOs) weighed 229.5 pounds for their 10 round contest.
The undercard has some other heavyweights, but Makkmudov stands out heads & shoulders over the others.
“When you’re as athletic as him, and I always say that punchers are born, not made. He’s not a pro boxer. He’s way behind Furyas far as boxing skills,” said Teddy Atlas to Fighthype about Francis Ngannou going up against Tyson Fury on Saturday.
“I always say that punchers are born, not made. When you have that kind of power, and he was born with power with the athleticism,” Atlas said about the 37-year-old Ngannou.
“Yeah, he’s not a pro boxer. He’s way behind Fury as far as developed striking skills, boxing skills because he hasn’t been in that business.
“Don’t forget that he’s been in the business of fighting, going into the realm of few people can go where you can be calm in an uncalm environment, the realm where you can keep the devil from knocking at the door where he comes to you and tries to suggest submission.
“These are certain things that other ordinary people would have suggested to them and be compromised by because they haven’t been in that realm, the pressure cooker of emotions and, quite frankly, fear. He’s [Ngannou] been in that realm. Don’t forget that.
“He’s been in MMA, but he’s still been there. Somebody that has been there mentally, you can’t count that person out if they’ve got the physical gifts,” said Atlas about Ngannou.
“Obviously, Fury has the advantage in a lot of physical areas, size & reach, and he’s also very versatile,” said Teddy about how he views a fight between WBC heavyweight champion Fury & IBF, WBA & WBO champ Oleksandr Usyk playing out.
“He’s [Fury] proven later in his career that he could not only box the way he does and show that agility that is very rare in a big man, but he can go get you too. So he can use his size in many different ways. Outside boxing or coming and breaking you down from a physical standpoint, imposing his physicality,” said Atlas about the 6’9″ Fury.
“So, he’s a hell of a difficult out, he’s a difficult guy to be in there with, but Usyk, with his whole career since the [2012] Olympics, winning the gold medal [for Ukraine], the cruiserweight, unifying all the titles [to become undisputed champion], and then winning the heavyweight [IBF, WBA & WBO straps from Anthony Joshua].
“There’s one really, really one thing that Usyk does. Do you know what it is? He knows how to win. So, it’s going to be interesting. Fury knows how to win, too, because of that. Listen, Usyk is very solid fundamentally. He just doesn’t have [the size or the youth].
“He’s very well-rounded. There’s nothing that he does bad, but he doesn’t have the ‘it,’ the one area where you say he’s real fast or really powerful. He doesn’t have that one thing, but the most important thing he is, is he’s mentally sound and he’s technically sound.
“He’s going to need every bit of it to figure out a way to win against a guy [Fury] who has all those physical attributes but maybe at a greater level [except for hand speed, movement, & agility] than Usyk with size and as I said earlier. He can do everything.
“Unfortunately, it’s been a bit of a conga line going out the door,” said Atlas about Showtime leaving boxing. “HBO some years ago, and now Showtime and the networks all went away. It’s scary, and it’s something that people better pay attention to. Boxing better wake up.
“Maybe they should call up somebody named Dana White [from the UFC] and get something out of his playbook as far as putting on competitive fights on a regular basis, with the best against the best, on a regular basis instead of the very irregular basis that they’ve been doing and getting away with.
“It seems like that’s coming back to bite them on the backside,” said Atlas about the promoters & top fighters causing networks to bail from the underproducing mismatch fights that aren’t bringing in the ratings high enough to keep showing them.
- Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou:
- Fury: 277.7 lbs
- Ngannou: 272.1 lbs
- Rounds: 10 (Heavyweight)
- Fabio Wardley vs. David Adeleye:
- Wardley: 241 lbs
- Adeleye: 232 lbs
- Rounds: 12 (Heavyweight)
- Joseph Parker vs. Simon Kean:
- Parker: 250.1 lbs
- Kean: 255.1 lbs
- Rounds: 10 (Heavyweight)
- Arslanbek Makhmudov vs. Junior Anthony Wright:
- Makhmudov: 260 lbs
- Wright: 229.5 lbs
- Rounds: 10 (Heavyweight)
- Moses Itauma vs. Istvan Bernath:
- Itauma: 236.1 lbs
- Bernath: 257.1 lbs
- Rounds: 6 (Heavyweight)
