Matchroom Boxing boss Eddie Hearn has opened talks with UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou over a potential super-fight with two-time boxing champion Anthony Joshua.
The British promoter has been taking care of Joshua's career since he turned professional after the London 2012 Olympics, and has guided him to two reigns with the unified heavyweight titles. And he could now bring his client one of the biggest crossover fights of all time with former UFC title holder Ngannou.
Cameroonian fighter Ngannou left the UFC without losing his belt, meaning the promotion must crown a new champion next month when they pit Jon Jones against Ciryl Gane. And he is now keen to make a move into boxing, his first love in combat sports, with Joshua atop his list of opponents alongside Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder.
During an appearance on The MMA Hour yesterday, Hearn confirmed that discussions had begun between Matchroom and Ngannou last week. "I think he's an outstanding man," Hearn said. "I always talk too much and I don't want to talk too much about what was said.
"I'm fascinated by people who have almost educated themselves to a point where you can have a conversation with a fighter or an athlete like that almost more productively than an agent or a lawyer. I reached out to Francis just to say 'look, I'm getting all these approaches from people claiming to represent Francis Ngannou, just tell me who I need to speak to,' and the answer was 'me'.
"I really liked that and look, we didn't go too deeply into that but I respect him greatly for the way he's handled his career to a point where now he's in a fantastic position. He has a new ocean to navigate now, which is a lot more rocky than the world of MMA and the UFC in that he's in the wild west of boxing."
Hearn is keen to make what would be one of the biggest fights in boxing between two great heavyweight champions of different disciplines, but understands that Ngannou will first want to build the right team. And there will certainly be competition from other promoters who want to get him in, particularly for those bouts with Fury or Wilder.
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"I feel like he probably wants to build a team of people around him who make sure that they successfully navigate that ocean and maximise his potential," Hearn continued. "We'll see, for me we'd love to be involved in his career. The Anthony Joshua fight is probably one of the biggest fights that can be made across any kind of sport.
"Obviously the Tyson Fury fight is there for him as well. I was pretty captivated by him, I'm not a massive MMA fan, but I still respect what he's achieved there. I just found him to be an outstanding gentleman, we'll see where it goes. I said 'we'll talk' and ultimately he's going to have a lot of opportunities presented to him.
"It's really down to himself about which opportunities he wants to take and who he trusts moving forward. I explained to him in boxing you can waste your time. You can go through months of negotiations with the wrong people, next thing, a deal's done, contract breached, escrow's fallen through and you've wasted six months of the year.
"He has a golden opportunity now to really solidify himself financially and many generations beyond him by being involved in an event that would be one of the biggest in fight sport history. I think he should fight Anthony Joshua, these guys have a mountain to climb in terms of the challenge of fighting an elite boxer."
