06 March 2024 , 14:30
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Tyson Fury met with domestic rival Anthony Joshua and old foe Francis Ngannou before vowing to smash Oleksandr Usyk.
Heavyweight champion Fury, who fights Usyk for the undisputed world titles on May 18, featured in an unlikely picture alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, Saudi royal advisor Turki Alalshikh, Joshua and Ngannou on Tuesday night. The five of them met in Riyadh ahead of Joshua's mega-fight against Ngannou on Friday at the Kingdom Arena.
Fury has been linked to fight Joshua for almost a decade and he shared the ring with former UFC champion Ngannou last October. The fight ended in controversy as Fury won by a single point despite being dropped by Ngannou, who was making his boxing debut. Fury captioned the picture: "Turki Alalshikh, Cristiano, Francis Ngannou, Anthony Joshua with The GypsyKing. I want the winner after I smash the rabbit [Usyk]."
Tyson Fury with Anthony Joshua, Cristiano Ronaldo, Turki Alalshikh and Francis Ngannou (tysonfury/Instagram)Fury's trainer Andy Lee revealed things almost kicked off between the Brit and Ngannou whilst being in the same room. "Anthony Joshua is on one side and Tyson’s here," Lee told iFL TV. "Ngannou came in and Tyson pulled him up straight away and said ‘Hey you, you’ve been talking about me in interviews saying I’m a coward, called me a yellow belly’.
“Ngannou in fairness was quite calm and cool. Tyson said ‘You did, saying you won the fight, I beat you’. Ngannou said: ‘No, no, no, I didn’t say that’ but Tyson said: ‘You did. What does your record say? You take care of your man and I’ll take care of my man then I’ll give it to you again.' He put it on him for a bit and it was interesting, it was good.
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Joshua or Ngannou could be next in line for Fury as the winner of their fight has been promised an undisputed world title shot against either Fury or Usyk. Ngannou isn't bothered about winning world titles in boxing but is routing for Fury to beat Usyk so they can fight for the second time.
"Every single fight will always feel different," Ngannou said. "In my opinion, the Tyson Fury one was different. It was the first time and there was a lot of noise. Fury is loud and there was a lot of curiosity, even a lot of people including the boxing community didn’t believe it. It’s changed because now people are thinking, 'Ok, this is a normal fight’."