Tyson Fury’s fight against Francis Ngannou will count towards his record as a professional boxer under sanction of the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC), reports suggest.
Whilst Fury has an unbeaten record in 33 fights, with his only draw coming against Deontay Wilder, Ngannou currently has a professional boxing record of 0-0, which is a roundabout way of saying this is his first ever real fight.
That isn’t to say that he’s a mug, of course.
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The huge fighter is a former UFC heavyweight champion and is known as one of the biggest punchers in combat sports.
That’s also something that people said – and still say – about Deontay Wilder, the fighter who arguably gave Fury the most difficulty during his career.
So, if Fury wants to protect that zero in the loss column on his professional record, he’ll have to keep his wits about him.
It was rumoured for a long time that the fight was set to be an exhibition, which would mean that the fight would not feature on the professional records of either fighter.
However, that now seems to have changed.
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The fight is listed on BoxRec – who are a bit of an oracle on such matters – and journalist Michael Benson tweeted: “Tyson Fury vs Francis Ngannou has been officially sanctioned by the BBBofC as a professional fight, so is now listed on BoxRec and will go on both fighters’ official records.”
Fans are divided on the merits of this, as one wrote: “Thats interesting. Imagine Ngannou does the unthinkable.”
Another said: “And i totally concur. If Mayweather/McGregor could, don't see why this shouldn't.”
A third commented: “Just to pad out Fury’s record a bit more.”
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Fury is the favourite, and one thing we do know is that his WBC world heavyweight championship belt will not be up for contest tonight.
That will probably come later this year against Oleksandr Usyk, who currently holds all the rest of the belts.
Fury is a huge favourite for this evening, as you might expect, and he’s spoken in typically confident style before this fight.
Despite that, he refused to completely rule out his opponent.
On the MMA Hour podcast, Fury said: “I think he's about level to the other heavyweights that I've fought,
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“Big strong heavyweight with a puncher's chance.
“That's all they ever are to me, big strong guys with a puncher's chance, I've never really met anybody who can outskill me in boxing or even come close to matching my skill.
“But all heavyweights have a puncher's chance, he always has that, but whoever I would be fighting I would be 100 per cent confident and call him a bum and a sausage and he ain't worth a carrot and he's going to get knocked out.
“So yeah, there's nothing different here.”
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The fight will take place this evening on TNT Sport Box Office, featuring 10 three-minute rounds.
The ringwalks for the main event are expected to take place at around 11:00pm UK time.
Featured Image Credit: Justin Setterfield/Getty ImageTopics: Boxing, Sport, World News, Tyson Fury