Francis Ngannou warned Tyson Fury he would be making a grave mistake by picking a fight with him outside the ring.
Former UFC champion Ngannou dropped Fury in his professional boxing debut last October en-route to a controversial points defeat. Despite having his hand raised, Fury endured the worst night of his career and was forced to postpone a showdown with Oleksandr Usyk two months later after being hurt by the newcomer.
The Cameroonian will face Anthony Joshua in his second professional bout on Friday with a shot at either Fury or Usyk - and the undisputed title - on the line for the winner. And three nights before the first bell, Ngannou and Joshua were invited to an audience with boxing's new ringmaster Turki Alalshikh.
They were joined by heavyweight world champion Fury who furiously confronted Ngannou, accusing him of branding him "a coward". Ngannou stood his ground as Fury mouthed off and said: "I think Tyson is trying to buy himself a good conscience. I have never called anyone a coward, unless you really are a coward. But I would never call a man who steps into the ring to fight another man a coward.
"For me it wasn’t a problem. It seems to be a problem for him but either way I told him we didn’t need to sort it out then, we will run it back so he had better be ready because I will be ready. It won't be my first bout anymore and I will bring everything I have with me and throw it at him.
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"I told him the only chance he has is in the boxing ring, I knew he couldn't do s***. The only moment he has a chance is when boxing rules apply. If you take them away, I beat him from Monday to Sunday - and maybe twice on Sunday." Joshua missed the heated confrontation and kept his counsel while sharing the room with his opponent and his countryman.
And he warned Ngannou he will have to put up with Fury's antics if he is to prolong his transition from mixed martial arts to boxing. "I heard he was stepping to Ngannou and thought, 'F***ing hell'. I didn't see it, I didn’t know he kicked off," he said. "But that's Fury and Ngannou will have to get used to it on his boxing journey.
"There wasn’t much conversation between myself and Fury, Ngannou and the other heavyweights, we are all here to do a job.
"His Excellency invited us to house and we respect the invite but I think if we were given the invite and told it was our choice, a lot of us would say 'f*** that!'.
"We all s*** each other off online but that was probably the first time we were all in a room with each other. I realised there that it’s all a bluff. I just stood in the corner, held my ground and scanned the room."
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