MIKE TYSON was left gobsmacked when he first got a glimpse of Francis Ngannou’s strength and power.
The former undisputed heavyweight champion is training with the MMA man-mountain ahead of his controversial crossover clash with Tyson Fury a fortnight on Saturday.
Iron Mike promised to work with the former UFC heavyweight champion if he ever entered the squared circle four years ago and has stayed true to his word.
And to say he’s been blown away by the power carried by the Cameroonian clubber would be an understatement.
In an interview with The Daily Mail, Tyson said of Ngannou’s nuclear missile of a right hand: “It was astronomical.”
Tyson’s role in the camp has been devising a delivery system for Ngannou to land a sport-changing punch along with the PFL pounder’s striking coach Dewey Cooper.
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He said: “Having that punch is pretty interesting but it doesn’t have any value if it doesn’t land on the target.
“So we have to work on being more precise with his punch, which he pretty much is.
“He doesn’t need much, he’s a pretty rounded individual.”
Ngannou, 37, will try to do in ten rounds what 31 of the Gypsy King’s career opponents have failed to do and put him out for the count.
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But Tyson insists: “He has what it takes to knock out anything and anybody.”
The boxing world will be turned upside down if Ngannou does the unthinkable and takes out the WBC heavyweight champion.
Tyson, however, believes it’ll be a bigger sporting upset than when James ‘Buster’ Douglas knocked him out in the tenth round of their Tokyo tussle in 1990.
He said: “[The biggest upset] in the history of the sport, definitely. There’s no doubt about that.”
Fury, 35, has already lined up an undisputed heavyweight title fight with former pound-for-pound king Oleksandr Usyk for a mere eight weeks after his Saudi showdown with Ngannou.
But The Predator plans to throw a major spanner into the works of the eagerly-anticipated unification bout.
He wrote on X, former Twitter: “I have been underestimated and doubted before. We’ll see.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
