Tyson Fury made short work of Dillian Whyte in front of a capacity crowd at Wembley Stadium Saturday. The 33 year old heavyweight champion dropped Whyte with a powerful uppercut in the 6th round to retain his titles via TKO.
Fury ran his record to 32-0-1 (23KOs) with the win, as he landed nearly three times as many punches as his opponent. When all was said and done, The Gypsy King connected on 31% of his total punches, including 47% of his power shots thrown.
In similar fashion to his recent win over Deontay Wilder, Fury hinted that he could be considering retirement in the aftermath of his most recent victory. But only moments later, the Manchester native brought over current UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, who was part of the entourage in the ring, where the pair remarked that a “hybrid” fight between the two could be in the works.
“I want to find out who’s the baddest motherf*cker on the planet,” Ngannou said, which drew quite the reaction from the pro Fury crowd.
When pressed about the possibility of a crossover bout in his post-fight conference, Fury remarked that the idea of making “Floyd Mayweather money” was certainly an appealing proposition.
Ngannou had previously floated the idea of a superfight with Fury several months earlier. However with his UFC contract still in place, and Fury’s WBC obligations, both fighters seemed unlikely to square off with one another anytime soon.
Standing 6’9”, the Englishman would possess a 5” height advantage over the UFC champion. However Ngannou has proven over the years that he’s more than capable of handling himself on the feet against some of the best strikers in the world.
“Big Francis Ngannou is here today, he’s on my hit list in an exhibition fight, however he wants it: in a cage, in a boxing ring, boxing gloves, UFC gloves, we can make it happen,” said Fury. “I think everyone wants to see it. He’s a monster of a guy, I’m a monster of a guy, so it will be a clash of the titans for sure.”
The appetite for crossover fights, especially at the upper echelons of the weight scale, would likely yield generational wealth for both fighters if it were to materialize later this year or in early 2023.
While official figures were never made publicly available, it was reported that Floyd Mayweather took home upwards of $280M in his fight against Conor McGregor. While McGregor didn’t earn nearly as much for his efforts, he likely isn’t losing much sleep over it having earned a reported $130M himself.
With the loss, Whyte drops to 28-3 in his career.
Photo: Mike DiDomizio. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.