Tyson Fury, boxing's lineal heavyweight champion, and Francis Ngannou, the former UFC heavyweight champion, will fight Oct. 28 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, sources told ESPN.
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman didn't respond to a text message asking whether Fury's WBC heavyweight title will be on the line.
The rules and number of rounds for the contest were unclear at this time. Fury and Ngannou teased a future meeting in April 2022, sharing the ring after Fury's sixth-round TKO victory over Dillian Whyte in London to retain his WBC heavyweight title. «Big Francis Ngannou is here today,» Fury said at the time. «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.
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 34-year-old Englishman returned for a trilogy battle with Derek Chisora in December, a 10th-round stoppage win to retain the top spot in ESPN's heavyweight rankings.