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Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina sat next to Salman Khan for Tyson Fury vs Francis Ngannou fight in Saudi Arabia.
Fury, 35, will fight on Saturday against 37-year-old former UFC champion Ngannou, who is contesting his first-ever boxing match.
However, Fury’s WBC heavyweight title will not be on the line.
The fight in Riyadh is set to take place in a separate ring and in an adjacent arena to the rest of the undercard. Fury, one of the most decorated champions in the heavyweight division, has contemplated retirement on and off for the last few years as talks of making a unification bout with Anthony Joshua and then Oleksandr Usyk seemed to stall out. His last two ventures to the ring were not of championship caliber in many eyes as he stopped both Dillian Whyte and Derek Chisora in 2022. Now, if successful on Saturday, he and Usyk have signed contracts for a meeting in December to finally crown a four-belt undisputed champion.
The BBBofC – the UK governing body for boxing – had previously said the show in Saudi Arabia was under its jurisdiction, but uncertainty remained over whether the Fury-Ngannou fight would officially be counted as professional.
However, it has now appeared on the BBBofC website’s official schedule section.
Fury had earlier said he was told by general secretary Robert Smith it is a pro fight and will count towards records.
Fury said: “I’m happy because… before it was going to be like a result on the night but not an official win or loss on the record. Now it makes things a bit tastier.”
“How do I prepare for a guy like this? It’s pretty difficult, but in America, we say a statement like this, ‘I’m gonna knock a motherf—er out!’ And that’s how we do it. I’ve been working with SugarHill [Steward] to knock him out cold on Saturday night, and I have no doubt in my mind that I will knock him out,” Fury said at the final press conference this week.
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