Fury v Ngannou: Start time, undercard, how to watch it – and why the cross-over fight is happening
The so-called “Battle of the Baddest” will see boxing champion Tyson Fury take on MMA great Francis Ngannou in a spectacle featuring two fighters at the top of their fields.
It will mark former UFC heavyweight champion Ngannou’s first boxing bout – and he’s starting against a man considered by many to be the best of his weight class in undefeated lineal and WBC heavyweight champion Fury.
The highly anticipated 10-round showdown is a non-title fight, yet Fury claims there is more on the line for him now than in any of his previous battles.
Here’s everything you need to know about the fight.
When and where is it?
Fury and Ngannou will face off on Saturday 28 October in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with undercard coverage starting at 6pm UK time.
The main event ring walks are expected to start at roughly 10.40pm.
Who’s on the undercard?
Another major clash is due to take place at the show, between Fabio Wardley (16-0) and David Adeleye (12-0) for the British heavyweight title. Former WBO heavyweight world champion Joseph Parker will also take on Canada’s Simon Kean.
The rest of the fights expected on the undercard are:
Arslanbek Makhmudov v Junior Anthony Wright; Heavyweight
Moses Itauma v Istvan Bernath; Heavyweight
Carlos Takam v Martin Bakole; Heavyweight
Jack McGann v Alcibiade Duran Galvan; Super welterweight
About the fighters
Anyone with even a marginal interest in the sport will be familiar with the self-proclaimed “Gypsy King”, Tyson Fury.
The six-foot-nine heavyweight, who has a record of 33-0-1 (24 KOs), briefly became unified heavyweight champion in 2015, when he toppled longstanding holder Wladimir Klitschko.
He was later stripped of two of those titles and vacated the three others during a period in which he suffered from mental health issues leading to alcoholism, recreational drug use and extreme weight gain.
But he went on to compete in one of the great ever boxing trilogies, against American Deontay Wilder, winning the WBC title back in the second of those bouts.
The 35-year-old more recently beat Dillian Whyte and Derek Chisora in front of record-breaking crowds in London.
Cameroonian-French Ngannou reached similar heights in his UFC career, knocking out one of the greatest heavyweights in UFC history, Stipe Miocic, in 2021 to become the UFC’s first-ever heavyweight champion from Africa.
The 37-year-old was stripped of the title after leaving the UFC in January, having failed to agree terms on a new contract.
He has not fought since he defeated Ciryl Gane by unanimous decision at UFC 270 in January 2022.
That win was Ngannou’s sixth in a row, adding to his record of 17-3-0.
While he will be dismissed by many as a boxing novice, the six-foot-four, 280-pound fighter is no stranger to the ring, having trained as a boxer for years before making it in MMA.
Heavyweight boxing icon Mike Tyson is training him up for the encounter.
Mike Tyson watches as Francis Ngannou trains with Dewey Cooper at a private gym in Las Vegas
Why the cross-over?
While Ngannou is far from a nobody, he certainly would not have been the first opponent fans thought of when Fury was looking for his next challenge after beating Dereck Chisora last December by technical knockout.
But the fight was sanctioned by the WBC after Fury’s efforts to make an undisputed championship fight with Oleksandr Usyk, the of the WBA, WBO and IBF titles, failed.
There was also speculation around fights with contenders such as Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz before he agreed to the cross-over bout with Ngannou.
While both boxers have insisted it is not the case, some have speculated the money they will receive has been the deciding factor – with claims Ngannou coud earn more than £8m and Fury reported picking up £39m.
Fury’s next fight did not exactly come from nowhere, though. Straight after knocking out Dillian Whyte in April 2022, he pulled Ngannou into a post-fight interview in the ring.
He promised an “explosive fight” with Ngannou, who was UFC champion at that point.
The MMA fighter was receptive to the idea, although he clearly had different plans for the nature of the fight.
“It’s going to be a hybrid fight with different type of rules – you know, MMA gloves… like a mix-up… something a little different,” Ngannou said in the ring, as Fury nodded in apparent agreement.
The “hybrid” pitch never panned out, and it was later confirmed that the fight would take place under the official rules of professional boxing.
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How to watch the coverage
TNT Sports will be showing the fight live on its pay-per-view service in the UK and Ireland.
Sky customers can purchase TNT Sports Box Office on channel 490 via their remote control or via www.sky.com/boxoffice/tnt-sports
Streaming service DAZN will be making the fight available on a pay-per-view basis in over 200 other countries.
What have Fury and Ngannou said?
Tyson Fury jokes about his weight during a face-off with Francis Ngannou. Pic: Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Boyers
Fury has been quick to dismiss suggestions that he can take this fight lightly due to his opponent’s lack of experience in the boxing ring, claiming there’s “more riding on this than there ever has been before.”
In a press conference last month, he said: “I only trained six weeks for Deontay Wilder – I’m training 12 weeks for Francis. I need to be on my A-game, because there’s more on the line now than a boxing fight.
“If I lose to a number one contender or another champion, then people would say, ‘oh, he lost to another champion.’
“But if I lost to an MMA guy, I’m never going to be able to show my face in public again. There’s going to be ridicule and people are going to chuck it in my face forever.
“There’s more riding on this than there ever has been before.
“Whether the media wants to take it as a joke or not, make no mistake, Tyson Fury will leave no stone unturned and I will come in at my fittest and strongest I’ve ever been to beat this man.
“If I’m not, and I get knocked out, I want you all to laugh at me. That’s what I want, because I would’ve deserved it.
“The man’s a machine and I’ll give 100% respect.”
“I’m very excited and happy,” Ngannou said. “I had a dream as a kid to become a boxer, and now I’m going to box a guy at the peak of the mountain.
“For me, usually I would not pay attention to what’s going on around me, but this is so big that I can’t stop thinking about it.
“History is about to be made in Riyadh on October 28. It’s something that I didn’t see coming, although my dream was that someday it would happen.
“It’s not just going to be a fight, we’re opening up Riyadh Season, so it’s a cultural event that we’re fighting in.
“Nobody knows exactly what’s going to happen, but what I do know for sure is that I’m going to be out there hunting for this guy’s head to take it off, I guarantee you that.”
‘I’d like to fight Ngannou in the cage’
Fury has also backed himself to beat Ngannou at his own game, in a future MMA fight.
“I’d like to fight Ngannou in the cage; I think I’d beat him for sure,” he said.
“He’s not a good jiu-jitsu man, he’s not a good wrestler. He’s known for striking and I’m a better striker than him. I’d knock him out in seconds. He’s more of a stand-up striker.”
Angelina Jolie says although she appreciates being an artist, she would prefer for her legacy to be “a good mother” and to be known for her “belief in equality and human rights”.
The Oscar-winning actress stars as Maria Callas in the new Pablo Larrain film about the opera singer’s life.
Pic: StudioCanal
She has called Maria “the hardest” and “most challenging” role she has had in her career and put months of preparation into immersing herself into the world of opera.
Jolie, who recently reached a divorce settlement with actor Brad Pitt, told Sky News: “To be very candid, it was the therapy I didn’t realise I needed. I had no idea how much I was holding in and not letting out.
“So, the challenge wasn’t the technical [side of opera], it was an emotional experience to find my voice, to be in my body, to express. You have to give every single part of yourself.”
The biopic combines the voice of the Maleficent actress with recordings of Maria Callas.
Jolie believes it “would be a crime to not have [Callas’] voice through this because, in many ways, she is very present in this film”.
Who was Maria Callas?
Born in New York in 1923, Maria Callas was the daughter of Greek immigrants who moved back to Athens at the age of 13 with her mother and sister.
After enrolling at the Athens Conservatory, she made her professional debut at 17 and went on to become one of the most famous faces of opera, travelling around the world and performing at Covent Garden in London, The Met in New York and La Scala in Milan.
Callas’s final operatic performance took place at Covent Garden in 1965 when she was 41 but she continued to work conducting master classes at Juilliard School, doing concert tours and starring in the 1969 film Medea.
Written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, Maria focuses on the artist’s final years in the 1970s when she moved to Paris and disappeared from public view.
She died on 16 September 1977 at the age of 53.
Pic: StudioCanal
Jolie on changing motivations as an actor
Maria follows the life of an artist fully consumed by the art she creates and even remarks that “happiness never developed a beautiful melody”.
Reflecting on her own life in the spotlight, Jolie said she noticed her own career motivations change over the years.
“There’s this kind of study of being human that we do when we create, and we communicate with an audience because our work is not in isolation – it’s a connection.
“I think when I was younger, I had different questions about being human and different feelings and now as I’ve gotten older, I understand some things and now I have different questions.
“It’s a matter of life, right? And so maybe that’s interesting that this now is a character really contemplating death and really contemplating the toll of certain things in life that I, of course, couldn’t have understood in my 20s”.
Jolie at the New York Film Festival in September with three of her children (L-R) Pax, Zahara and Maddox. Pic: AP
A family affair
Two of Jolie’s children, Maddox and Pax, took on production assistant roles during the filming of Maria and witnessed their mother perform opera for the first time in public.
She says the film allowed them to create new experiences together and for her children to see her approach to playing a difficult role.
“Everyone in my home, we all give each other space to be who we are and we’re all different.
“I’m the mom, but I’m also an artist and a person and so my family has been very kind and gives me their understanding. They make fun of me, and they support me and just as you’d hope it would be.”
She adds: “When you play somebody who is dealing with so much pain, it’s very important to come home to some kindness.”
Maria is in cinemas now.
Tom Holland’s dad has confirmed his son’s engagement to Zendaya – revealing how the 28-year-old meticulously planned the proposal.
Zendaya, also 28, sparked engagement rumours when she attended last Sunday’s Golden Globes wearing a sparkling diamond on her ring finger.
Neither star has publicly addressed the rumours but Tom’s comedian father, Dominic Holland, has now confirmed the pair are set to wed.
He wrote in a post on his Patreon account: “Tom, as you know by now was very incredibly well prepared. He had purchased a ring.
“He had spoken with her father and gained permission to propose to his daughter.”
“Tom had everything planned out… When, where, how, what to say, what to wear,” he added.
Zendaya arrived at the Golden Globes with a noticeable piece of new jewellery. Pic: Invision/AP
Dominic also noted that while most men worry about being able to afford an engagement ring, he suspects his actor son was “more concerned with the stone, its size and clarity, its housing, which jeweller”.
Tom and Zendaya met on the set of Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2016, when they played the titular hero and his love interest MJ, respectively. Their romance was confirmed in 2021.
In his post, Tom’s father admitted fears over whether being in the spotlight could put a strain on the couple’s relationship.
He wrote: “I do fret that their combined stardom will amplify their spotlight and the commensurate demands on them and yet they continually confound me by handling everything with aplomb.”
“And even though show business is a messy place for relationships and particularly so for famous couples as they crash and burn in public and are too numerous to mention […] yet somehow right at the same time, I am completely confident they will make a successful union.”
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Zendaya rose to fame after landing a role in Disney sitcom Shake It Up, and became a household name after starring in Euphoria.
Holland – who has starred in three Spider-Man films opposite his now-fiancée – made his stage debut in Billy Elliot the Musical in 2008.
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