Chael Sonnen isn’t on board with Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou – well, at least not how Fury wants it to happen.
Chatter of a potential superfight between boxing heavyweight champion Fury and former UFC heavyweight champ Ngannou long has been brewing. However, with the announcement of Ngannou’s free agency, talk has picked up and even from Fury, who publicly challenged Ngannou on Sunday.
Sonnen, a former UFC title challenger and retired MMA star, found Fury’s recent offer to Ngannou of a mixed rules bout ridiculous and completely blasted the idea.
“I see Tyson Fury come out over the weekend and finally clear up first what we’re going to do first with Francis,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “They’ve always said they’re going to make up a sport. These two were going to do a game, but they were going to do something combat related. For reasons unknown, they weren’t going to box. Francis offered to box, and for reasons unknown, Tyson did not accept that invitation, and they were going to make up rules.
“Tyson finally laid out for us what they are. They were going to fight in a cage. I have no idea why. They’re going to fight in a cage. OK, fine. They’re going to wear four-once gloves. I have no idea why, but OK, fine. They are then going to follow boxing rules, the rules of Queensbury. …
“I put this out there because of how disappointing it is to see these boxers as beggers. Guys that are hot to fight to go out there and get it on your own, that have physical capabilities that other men can only dream of. But they don’t know how to go out there and get it on their own. They just don’t know how. I bring it to you because to watch Tyson Fury beg, it was surprising. I don’t want to call it disappointing. It was really close to calling it that, but I don’t want to call it that. So Tyson comes to us with perhaps the dumbest idea in sports history. He knows it is.”
Sonnen would like to see Fury and Ngannou go at it in traditional boxing, not some made-up rule set. He believes the change is to add roadblocks, thus making the fight less likely to happen.
“To watch a guy in that position that could command, that has the connections, that should’ve done this behind the scenes, should’ve been able to come out and make an announcement, instead lobby a joke to the world with pieces – it was just weird,” Sonnen explained.
“Are you guys going to do it or not? If you’re going to do it, why do it in a cage? Why do it with four-once gloves? Why are you calling boxing Queensbury? Why don’t we make this real simple? Tell me that. Because then we’d have to do it. That’s why. We make it complex, so we can get out of doing it.”
