Nate Diaz suggests new opponent for Tyson Fury after Francis Ngannou call-out

11 February 2023 , 12:48

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Nate Diaz suggests new opponent for Tyson Fury after Francis Ngannou call-out

Nate Diaz has suggested that Tyson Fury face former UFC heavyweight Ben Rothwell instead of current champion Francis Ngannou after launching his own boxing promotion.

Fury and Ngannou have both expressed interest in a hybrid boxing match where the pair meet in a cage, wearing 4oz MMA gloves, but under traditional boxing rules. They went head-to-head in the ring back in April after Fury defeated Dillian Whyte at Wembley Stadium, and now that the UFC champion is out of his contract, there's nothing that can stop him getting the fight.

But Diaz feels that the better match-up for Fury would be bare-knuckle boxer and former UFC heavyweight Rothwell, for whom he appears to have plans with his Real Fight promotion. The massive fighter left the UFC and joined BKFC last year, where he defeated Bobby O'Bannon in his debut.

Diaz took to social media to suggest that the world heavyweight champion take on Rothwell, who is 6'4" and last weighed in over 292lb for his BKFC bow. The American is not a particularly highly-ranked heavyweight, and holds a 39-14 record as a professional in MMA, 3-0 in kickboxing and 1-0 in bare-knuckle.

In September of last year, Diaz left the UFC on a win when he submitted Tony Ferguson in the final fight of his contract to finally earn his freedom after 15 years in the promotion. He has since followed in the footsteps of Jorge Masvidal and Jake Paul in starting his own promotional company, where he will run events soon.

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Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou could fight later this year (ESPN)

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Fury likely won't take him up on his offer, but he does have history with the Diaz family, previously training with Nate's older brother Nick while in Las Vegas to prepare for his trilogy fight with Deontay Wilder. The pair shared pictures from the session, with Tyson joking that he had rolled with the jiu-jitsu black belt.

When Diaz took to social media to show footage of a training session he did with Fury last year, the Brit responded by noting how much fun he'd had working on the ground game. Diaz and his brother Nate are both jiu-jitsu experts, and he likely showed Fury the ropes during a gym session. In a comment under the elder Diaz brother's post, Fury said, "Nice bit of rolling around the mat".

Donagh Corby