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Ngannou had serious doubts about his ability to last in the ring with heavyweight legend Tyson Fury. Francis Ngannou may have seemed confident going into his first boxing match ag…
Ngannou had serious doubts about his ability to last in the ring with heavyweight legend Tyson Fury.
Francis Ngannou may have seemed confident going into his first boxing match against heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, but “The Predator” now admits he was anything but.
In a new interview with The Ring Magazine, Ngannou detailed his headspace as he took on Fury following his departure from the UFC.
“Just go there and do what you can do, do your best,” Ngannou said. “And I think I always go by that. From the beginning, it’s always, like, give my best. Not sure if it’s gonna be enough, but make sure that you give your best and then the rest, you cannot control it.”
Francis Ngannou tells The Ring that he was not that confident heading in his fight with Tyson Fury: ”I’m questioning myself if I can go through three or four rounds.” pic.twitter.com/4oeSVellYP
— Ring Magazine (@ringmagazine) February 27, 2025
“I wasn’t calm,” he said of the fight. “I mean, I might have been calm, but I wasn’t that confident. Because I have my ego as a man, I say, ‘Okay, I’m fighting another man. I have the capability to win.’ But at the same time, it’s my first boxing match.”
“I’m there questioning myself if I can go through three rounds, four rounds, if I can get there. I never been there in my life. And then I’m getting to the end of my career. I’m fighting a guy that has a whole experience in his entire career, getting almost to the end of his own career. So he’s done this tons of time. I haven’t done that.”
Ngannou also revealed that he wasn’t very confident that his knee would hold up. Francis blew it out preparing for his final UFC fight against Ciryl Gane but still went through with the fight. He’d beat Gane via unanimous decision but spend a year trying to get his knee back into proper condition.
“Can I stand up on this knee again? Like, is it gonna hold up?” he remembers wondering as he prepared for Fury. “Because I had a very hard knee surgery, a lot of complications. And for over a year I couldn’t walk properly, struggling with rehab. I’m like, is it gonna hold up or is it gonna buckle once and for all? I don’t know. But again, do what you can do and see what happens.”
In the end, Ngannou’s best was enough to get him a split decision loss against Fury and the respect of the boxing world. His next fight against Anthony Joshua didn’t go so well, but he’s hoping to bounce back from that with another big boxing bout sometime in 2025. Who knows how it will go, but we have no doubt “The Predator” will give it his all … and be prepared for any shenanigans that are thrown his way by shady boxing promoters.