(Riyadh) One experienced exile and the street, the other faced his demons and came close to suicide… MMA giant Francis Ngannou and boxing giant Tyson Fury, who face each other on Saturday in Riyadh, both had winding paths to glory.
The two heavyweights, who reign supreme in their respective fields, find themselves in the ring for a lucrative boxing fight, billed as a clash of the titans.
Tyson Fury, grandeur and decadence of a stage beast
At 35, Fury, a loudmouth with an evocative name, has become one of the greatest boxers of his time despite a disjointed career, between suspensions, depressive episodes and real-false retirements.
A 2.06 meter force of nature, the British heavyweight with a tortured soul comes from a family of Irish gypsies. Fury, aka the “Gipsy King”, often recounts having had to fight from his first days: born extremely premature, doctors were pessimistic about his chances of survival.
But the young Tyson, named in homage to Mike Tyson, descendant of a long lineage of boxers, has fighting in his genes. He started boxing at age 10, becoming professional in 2008, before his career took off when he dethroned Ukrainian monument Wladimir Klitschko in 2015, to everyone’s surprise, to capture the WBA-WBO-IBF heavyweight titles. A star is born.
But it was at the moment when he reached the heights that the new king of heavyweights experienced a descent into hell. Testing positive for cocaine, stripped of his titles and diagnosed with bipolar disorder, he fell into a deep depression.
“I don’t know if I’ll make it through the year. I just hope someone kills me, before I kill myself,” he confessed in 2016, the rings then seeming like a distant memory.
Having gone through all the stages, the juggernaut will eventually get up and resume the thread of his career in 2018. During an epic trilogy against the American Deontay Wilder that remains in the annals, he seizes the WBC heavyweight belt : a rebirth.
To fully perfect his reputation, he still has one last step to climb against the Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk, holder of the WBA, IBF and WBO titles, probably in December.
Francis Ngannou, exile and the street before glory
PHOTO IAN MAULE, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
At 37 years old, Francis Ngannou has built a reputation as a dangerous puncher to rise to the top of the UFC, the most prestigious MMA league, in just a few years.
If he wants to beat Fury, Ngannou will have to rely on his formidable punching ability. At 37, Ngannou has built a reputation as a dangerous puncher to rise to the top of the UFC, the most prestigious MMA league, in just a few years. A meteoric rise for the “Predator”, starting from nothing.
Born in Cameroon in a very modest environment, he spent his summers working in sand mines. Driven by the lack of prospects in his country of origin, he decided to take the path of exile, crossing the desert then the Mediterranean to land in Paris in 2013.
“From Cameroon to France, it is the story of a young person who did not have much luck in life, but who did not give up, who allowed himself to dream,” summarized- he in 2018. “I am fighting against a fate that was destined for me, a situation to which I was condemned. »
Arriving in the French capital with empty pockets, homeless for a while before being helped by an association, he scoured the boxing gyms in order to realize his dream of becoming world champion. But it was in MMA that he managed to make a career, with an extraordinary physique which allowed him to combine power, speed, endurance and coordination.
He signed with the UFC at the end of 2015 and gave himself a first chance to win the heavyweight belt in January 2018. Defeated during this first attempt, he did not miss his second chance and seized the throne three years later in defeating American Stipe Miocic.
He then retained his crown at the start of 2022 against Frenchman Ciryl Gane before announcing his departure from the UFC last January due to his acrimonious relationship with the president of the organization, Dana White, considered not generous enough.
By making this foray into Tyson Fury’s field for his first professional boxing fight, Ngannou knows that a disproportionate challenge awaits him. “I know this is my first fight, but I am a man of challenges and I have faced many challenges (in my life). »