World heavyweight champion Tyson Fury has insisted ‘it doesn’t matter’ who coaches Francis Ngannou in their upcoming fight as he will ‘knock him out’ anyway.
It comes after Mike Tyson, who is training the UFC star, backed Ngannou to beat Fury despite his lack of boxing experience.
The pair square off in a 12-round professional boxing bout in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on October 28.
Ngannou, a former UFC heavyweight champion, has never boxed before yet he will jump the queue and face arguably the best boxer in the division in two months’ time.
Tyson remained upbeat about the 36-year-old’s chances, as he said on Twitter: ‘He’s had many professional fights, he’s just never experienced a professional boxing match.’
The boxing legend also said it was an ‘honour to be part of Ngannou’s journey’, and backed up to ‘shock the world.’
Fury has now hit back, tweeting: ‘It’s good to see you training hard and you’re going to need to!
‘It doesn’t matter if you’re being trained by the great Mike Tyson, Muhammad Ali of Bruce Lee, you’re going to get KO’d in the Kingdom.’
Many fans had hoped to see the WBC title-holder fight unified WBO, WBA (super) and IBF champion Oleksandr Usyk in the first undisputed heavyweight contest of the four-belt era.
However, negotiations collapsed for a date in April after the two parties were unable to agree upon the purse split for their rematch.
It is expected that Fury and Usyk will renew those discussions once they have dealt with their upcoming foes – the Ukrainian faces WBA mandatory Daniel Dubois on August 26 in Wroclaw, Poland.
But that won’t be the case if Fury decides to walk away from the sport for good.
‘Age catches up with everybody,’ Fury admitted during an appearance on Heart Radio. ‘And every top-performance athlete at 35 is probably past their best.
‘But I just feel like I’m getting better and more intelligent as I’m getting older. So who knows how long I’ve got left?
‘Maybe not long, maybe a year, maybe two years. Maybe one fight. Who knows?’
Fury briefly retired after defeating Dillian Whyte in April 2022 only to climb back into the ring later that year against Derek Chisora.