Former undisputed heavyweight champion Tyson is helping Ngannou prepare for his boxing debut on Saturday but he was initially unsure about wether their relationship would work
Boxing legend Mike Tyson wasn't confident about coaching Francis Ngannou for his fight against Tyson Fury when the duo first paired up. 'Iron Mike' has been working with former UFC champion Ngannou since the start of August to help him get ready for his boxing debut against Fury, which takes place this Saturday in Saudi Arabia.
Ngannou vacated his heavyweight belt and split with the UFC at the beginning of this year in the hopes of securing a big-money boxing payday. Fury's WBC heavyweight title won't be on the line in his crossover bout with Ngannou because the MMA star isn't ranked by the organisation. Tyson is confident that Ngannou can pull off a huge upset to ruin any chance of Fury's undisputed fight with Oleksandr Usyk taking place in December, but the 57-year-old didn't feel the same way a few months ago. Who wins on Saturday - Tyson Fury or Francis Ngannou Let us know your prediction in the comments section below “I didn’t think it would go too well at first," Tyson told Top Rank Boxing. "The first day I thought we trained hard but the next day I asked him how he felt and he said ‘I feel great’. I said ‘Wow, that is a big mistake, you shouldn’t have told me that’. We came back to train that day and he didn’t say that, I wanted him to work until he couldn’t go anymore. That’s what heavyweight champs do, if you’re a heavyweight champion and you’ve got nothing left, you keep going.” Ngannou is still working alongside the coaches who guided him to UFC success in Eric Nicksick and Dewey Cooper of Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas. Cooper astonishingly claimed that Ngannou is still increasing his power despite already owning a record for the hardest punch ever recorded. "No one punches like Francis Ngannoy and the power is going up," Cooper told Mirror Fighting . "Of course people are going to feel the way they feel, but to say that someone only has a puncher's chance is a discredit to the dedication and the hard work that any fighter puts in for their fights. Who would have thought Crawford vs Spence would be one competitive round and then a blowout? This is fighting, no one is going to discredit Spence because he didn't have a great night. "To shrink someone down to only a puncher's chance is discrediting and I can tell you now we've got way more than a puncher's chance. On October 28, the world better be eyes open wide watching that fight. I feel that every time we get in the cage, every time we get in the ring, we're going to take a victory, no one has changed my mind. No one can defeat us including Tyson Fury."
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