It is no secret that Francis Ngannou has some of the scariest punching power in all of combat sports. With the proper training, his coach believes that he could even knock out heavyweight boxing champ Tyson Fury.
When Ngannou left his home country of Cameroon, headed towards France, he had dreams of being a professional boxer. However upon arriving in this new location and going to a gym, he was persuaded to try mixed martial arts instead.
By now, we all know how that went, as Francis has gone on to win the UFC heavyweight title. On top of that, he has finished every single person that he has gotten a win over, with the vast majority of those wins coming by way of vicious first round knockout.
Francis Ngannou Can Beat Tyson Fury?
While Francis Ngannou is committed to MMA, he has flirted with the idea of trying his hand at boxing, with particular interest in a Tyson Fury fight. His striking coach, Dewey Cooper seems to think that it is not outside the realm of possibility that Francis could win that fight.
Speaking in a recent interview, Cooper explained that with a proper focus into boxing training, it is very possible that Francis can knockout Fury. It would take some boxing-specific training, and an increased cardio, but he thinks the French-Cameroonian could do it.
“Tyson Fury, right now, is the best boxer in the world. Tyson Fury is difficult for any heavyweight because of the attributes, the speed, the boxing ability, the good defense, the confidence, the swagger of Tyson Fury. Tyson’s a real one,” Cooper said (h/t MMAFighting).
“Tyson’s a tough fight for anyone in boxing, but Francis (Ngannou) definitely could fight any heavyweight, with time and amending the training a little bit.”
“He could definitely do it because Francis does have power, however, with a boxing glove the power will decrease a little bit compared to what it is with an MMA glove because an MMA glove is only four ounces when a boxing glove is 10 ounces.
“So that makes a difference, you know, a lot of little intangible things. But to answer your question, of course he can box and of course he could eventually beat someone like a Tyson Fury, for sure. It just, you need to go into a straight boxing format.”
Cooper says that Francis Ngannou could beat Tyson Fury with the proper training. So what would that specific type of training entail? A lot of cardio, says Cooper.
“A lot more anaerobic activity, stuff like that. Because even though the MMA rounds are five minutes, people underestimate those three minute rounds. The pace is a hell of a lot faster and you have to do way more rounds,” Cooper said.
“A championship MMA fight is 25 minutes, a championship boxing fight is 36 minutes, and let me tell you something, that 11 minutes makes a big ass difference when you’re not getting taken down, you can’t lay on the ground, you can’t go for submissions. It’s punching or tying up momentarily being broken and keep punching again. So the anaerobic aspect has to be on point too.
“A lot of people who do MMA think boxing is much easier until they box and they realize boxing is way tougher than what people think. More people die annually in boxing than any other fight sport. That should tell you something. Boxing is a very dangerous sport to be involved in… But to answer your question, (Ngannou) can do it. He can do it, it just has to be formatted in the right situation.”
Do you think Francis Ngannou could beat Tyson Fury? Would the UFC even let that fight happen?
