2023-11-15 10:28:05
As expected, Francis Ngannou took tenth place in the new WBC heavyweight rankings after his split decision loss to champion Tyson Fury. In the event of a rematch between the two, and if the “Gypsy King” keeps it until then, the Briton’s world belt would therefore be at stake for the Cameroonian. Who pursues his destiny worthy of a film script.
WBC boss Mauricio Sulaiman promised this after his performance against Tyson Fury. It is now a reality. On the occasion of its annual convention, organized from November 12 to 17 in Tashkent (Uzbekistan), the famous Mexican boxing federation revealed its new rankings category by category. Among the heavyweights, as expected, we find in tenth place a certain Francis Ngannou.
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The consequence of his masterful performance against Tyson Fury at the end of October in Saudi Arabia, where the MMA fighter, former UFC heavyweight champion, held off the current WBC champion, sending him to the mat in the third round before conceding a defeat by split decision at the end of ten rounds (without forgetting to earn more money than in his entire MMA career combined as he further confirmed in an interview with the Last Stand Podcast). And this ranking changes a lot of things.
By entering the top 15, where he finds himself between the Swede Otto Wallin and the Croatian Filip Hrgovic and in front of boxers like the British Daniel Dubois and Joe Joyce, the Cameroonian becomes eligible for a fight for the WBC belt after only one outing among the professionals. Enough to spice up a possible rematch with the “Gypsy King”, which the “Predator” really wants and for which Fury has already opened the door. If the latter keeps his belt until then, it would therefore be put back into play in a second dance in the ring between the two.
Better: if Fury beats Oleksandr Usyk for the first unification of all the major titles in the category since Lennox Lewis in 1999, a shock now scheduled for February 17 still in Saudi Arabia (after having first been considered for December 23), Ngannou could face him for several belts (not all, because the IBF will become vacant if the contractual rematch signed between Fury and Usyk is activated and the winner does not face the mandatory challenger of the American federation after their first fight) if they find themselves between the ropes again. And if Fury loses the WBC belt, Ngannou can still try to face the new champion if he remains in the rankings.
It is assumed that the British champion would come better prepared for a rematch against the Cameroonian. But if Francis Ngannou – whose rumor mentioned a possible new boxing fight against Derek Chisora at the end of December but who would prefer to “face the best” (the American Deontay Wilder would, according to him, be a bigger shock than the Briton Anthony Joshua) – manages to shock the world, seeing a former UFC champion become world heavyweight champion in the noble art would be an XXL feat. The man who worked in a sand mine as a child and who took all the risks to reach Europe and change his destiny may not have finished writing his legend and adding chapters to a life path worthy of a film script.
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