It looks like Francis Ngannou made the right choice financially after parting ways with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) earlier this year. That’s because the former UFC heavyweight champion is expected to make at least $10 million for his upcoming boxing match with undefeated WBC champion Tyson Fury.
This is according to Fury himself, who accidentally revealed Ngannou’s fight purse during their pre-fight press conference earlier this week (replay HERE). Ngannou’s salary was going to be released at some point — especially with the fight less than two months away — but this is an alarming payday for “Predator.”
Tyson Fury: Everyone said he was an idiot for walking away from the UFC and now all of a sudden he’s a genius, isn’t he? Guy’s about to make $10M…#FuryNgannou pic.twitter.com/cZtAYoLsul
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) September 7, 2023
“Everyone said he was an idiot for walking away from the UFC and now all of a sudden he’s a genius, isn’t he? Guy’s about to make $10M…egg in their face, Francis is going to make that bag,” said Fury.
Ngannou, 37, has never competed in professional boxing before, but was hoping to structure his next mixed martial arts (MMA) contract to include a potential crossover. UFC was ready to pay Ngannou millions of dollars to remain heavyweight champion and fight Jon Jones in the biggest fight in combat sports, but the promotion wasn’t willing to play ball with “Predator” when it came to his interests in boxing.
In stepped Professional Fighters League (PFL), who offered up everything under the sun to sign Ngannou this past May (details HERE). The budding promotion not only signed Ngannou to a lucrative contract to compete inside of the PFL cage sometime in 2024, but the organization cleared the way for the former UFC champion to make a run at boxing.
To much surprise, Ngannou got his wish and will fight the most dangerous heavyweight in boxing today. Fury has never lost a fight in his professional career and has knocked off some of the biggest names around. Ngannou will have to really shock the combat sports world to pull out a win, but at least we know he’s going to make $10 million to take his shot.
It’s unknown at this time how much more Ngannou could make based on pay-per-view (PPV) buys from his matchup with Fury, but this is life-changing money.