Following his moral win over the WBC heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou has named who he wants to face next in the boxing ring, which will be at the end of 2024.
In a huge surprise to most, including Tyson Fury, Ngannou went the 10-round distance, and came within one judge's scoreboard of pulling off the upset, despite most believing he actually won, even though Fury landed more punches in the final two rounds according to CompuBox.
Prior to the crossover bout, leading voices in the boxing world and MMA dismissed the clash as a money grab, which it was, but in the aftermath of the event, things look different for both fighters.
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Fury had to push his unification bout with Oleksandr Usyk to the beginning of 2024, despite it being pencilled in for December, and Ngannou now has a slew of offers from the boxing world after the WBC officially ranked him inside its top ten.
In the lead up to the Saudi Arabia fight, prominent boxing promoter Eddie Hearn did not take the bout seriously and laughed off questions from reporters about a crossover match between Ngannou and his fighter Anthony Joshua.
But after Ngannou's surprise showing, Hearn has changed his tune, and is now pitching a "Rumble in the Jungle 2" fight.
"All of a sudden that fight between two giants, they're carved out of stone, it becomes a massive fight," Hearn told the BBC. "We're definitely willing to consider it.
"The MMA world believes Ngannou beats everyone. When I met Ngannou he was trying to pitch me AJ against Ngannou in Africa. I spoke to AJ about it at the time and he said 'I want to try to win the world heavyweight championship now'.
"I said 'this guy was close to beating Tyson Fury so he surely has to be a credible fight'. The MMA world are telling me Ngannou beats AJ easily. I'm like 'please make the fight because that's not the case'."
However, during a recent interview with TMZ Sports, Ngannou said he wants Fury again, even if that means waiting until the end of next year.
"The rematch. The rematch is what I want next the most," Ngannou said. "Right now, I feel like there's a lot of options for me, but I wanna choose wisely. I will go for the rematch first.
"Going into the first one, there were a lot of questions, a lot of uncertainty for boxing. Even going into the training camp, there was a lot of unknown…. That is a lot of experience that will definitely help me a lot for the second fight.
"My best scenario in boxing is to wait for Fury. I mean, if Usyk can step out and let me fight Fury, then I fight Fury," Ngannou continued. "(If not), I let them do whatever they do, I go back, maybe do some MMA, and come back and take some people in boxing. I'm planning to fight twice next year, maybe February or March.
"If it (Fury rematch) doesn't work (next), I can still fight February or March (in) MMA, and then expect by the end of the year… to get ready for the boxing match."
Clearly the flavour of the month in the fight world, Ngannou's people have been pitching various fights in the media.
The most notable being with Jon Jones, who in recent weeks pulled out of his bout with Stipe Miocic with injury.
While most believe a bout with the UFC legend is out of reach since the UFC would have to partner with rival promotion PFL, that did not stop Ngannou's coach from spruiking such a venture.
"In a perfect world, for me, I still want that Jon Jones fight," Eric Nicksick told The MMA Hour. "Hell yeah, I do. Just because I want to compete against the best and I think Jon is the best. I don't want any more guesses about who is the baddest man on the planet. Let's run it. Let's do it.
"Both sides can make that happen if they really wanted to. Set your egos aside, let's get Allegiant Stadium [in Las Vegas], let's give what the fans want and let's get Jon and Francis and let's see who the baddest man on the planet is.
"I want to compete against the best. I've said that time and time again. It's no disrespect to Jon. I think he's the best to ever do it, but I want that opportunity to coach against him and I want that opportunity to go beat the guy."
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