TYSON FURY has compared the prospect of losing to Francis Ngannou to the battering his beloved Manchester United suffered at the hands of Liverpool last season.
The Gypsy King locks horns with the former UFC heavyweight champion in a controversial crossover clash in Saudi Arabia next month.
Fury is an overwhelming favourite to come out of the desert dust-up victorious but insists he’s not taking the boxing novice lightly.
And he’s all too aware of the stain losing the Saudi showdown will leave on his career, much like Manchester United’s 7-0 loss to Liverpool in March has done with Erik ten Hag’s reign as Red Devils boss.
He told TNT Sports: “He’s about 6ft 5in tall, he’s about 278 pounds, he’s about 18 or 19 stone, a dynamite puncher with both hands.
“He’s recorded in the Guinness Book of Records as the hardest puncher to have ever punched anything, so there’s that risk.
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“The biggest risk of all is fighting an MMA fighter, and I’m the world heavyweight champion, so what happens if he beats me? Ridiculed.
“It would be like getting beat by Liverpool for Manchester United, 7-0, wouldn’t it?
“How do you come back from that?”
Despite Ngannou’s lack of professional boxing experience, Fury, 35, is treating the MMA man-mountain the same way he has all his previous opponents.
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He said: “All of these opponents I face, they are all risky fights, or are all big men – like anyone over 14 stone is a big man.
‘All of these guys are big lumps and when I fight them the risk is always the same, they’ve got a puncher’s chance.
“But I never leave a stone unturned.
‘That’s one thing I do. I always do everything I can in my power to be successful.
“The way I look at it is, if this guy is going to beat me then fair play to him I will shake his hand, he must be a good fighter because I’m no easy man to beat as I’ve shown over the years.
‘So if I can bump into somebody that can beat me, I would say, ‘Fantastic, fair play to you, well done,’ take them for a beer and that’s it.”
Fury is set to perform a quick turnaround after his ten-rounder with Ngannou for a historic undisputed heavyweight title fight with former pound-for-pound king Oleksandr Usyk.
SunSport understands the fight is on course to take place in Saudi on December 23, although it could be pushed back to January.
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
