Miocic Hopes Ngannou Beats Fury, Usman On Khabib Returning

In the MMA latest updates, Stipe Miocic, the former UFC heavyweight champion, is hopeful that Francis Ngannou can secure a shock win over Tyson Fury.

Miocic On Ngannou-Fury

The duo are set to face each other in a crossover event in Saudi Arabia on October 28th, 2023, which will see Ngannou stepping into the boxing ring for the first time in his career.

The odds are massively against him, as shown through the reaction that he has received to his public workouts. Despite having the former undisputed heavyweight champion Mike Tyson in his corner, Ngannou’s training footage was mocked. Both John Fury and Caleb Plant were very critical of Ngannou’s boxing.

Although that may be the case, Miocic was backing Ngannou. This was despite the fact that the latter had stopped him to become the UFC heavyweight champion during their rematch. A win after all would do wonders for MMA fighters in that it may encourage others to crossover into boxing and take the risk.

Miocic’s Comments

“Good for him. I wish him nothing but the best, man. Bigger and better things. I hope he does well. Tyson’s one of the best boxers of all time. But it’s a fight, Francis hits hard and he moves well. I just hope he shocks the world.

“I think Francis finds a way. He makes it a fight. Not so much technical, he just makes it a fight. I think he’ll be alright… Anyone can win. It’s a fight, anything can happen,” Miocic said

Regardless of what does end up happening, it is a no-lose situation for Ngannou and Fury. Both fighters are expected to receive career-high paydays. Ngannou’s sums is alleged to be close to $10 million.

Meanwhile, Fury is alleged to be getting a staggering $50 million from the fight. So either way, the fight will reward both men for taking that risk.

Usman On Khabib

Meanwhile, Usman Nurmagomedovis hope that Khabib Nurmagomedov will make a return to the sport at some point in the future by being in the latter’s corner.

Khabib ultimately decided to retire from the sport after having secured a win in his last fight at UFC 254 in 2020. That maintained the Russian’s unbeaten record as he walked away with nothing else to prove.

After all, he had also beaten Conor McGregor in of the sport’s biggest fights by matter the latter tap in front of a global audience. Thereafter, Khabib did take up a training role as his love of the sport was clear.

Usman, Khabib’s cousin, happened to be one of those that he was training. Usman is currently competing within Bellator as he remains undefeated while holding the lightweight belt. So when he was asked about Khabib returning in any sort of form, this is what Usman had to say.

“Of course, I miss him a lot to be honest. I text him everyday like ‘when you come back?’, he tells me ‘hey leave me alone’. No. I know Khabib and I know him like brother, like human who follow his word. You know, like if he say something, he follow. This man like, this is like what Iearned for my life now. Like, this like example for me, not only like in this sport like in life too and when I see like when he tell something, he always follow his word.

“I don’t think he’s going to become like coach, corner, even he don’t come to watch like fight like in arena. I don’t know why. When I ask him like ‘hey, you’re going to be come to watch my fight in arena? Just sit in front of like Octagon? he say, ‘between me and TV, nobody gonna be sitting brother, believe me,” Usman stated

Ultimately, the sport served as an example for what Khabib could achieve. And now that he has retired, the former MMA fighter clearly has other goals on his mind.

But for someone who had made such an impact on the sport, it is tough to see the fighter walking away completely.

Although that may be the case, there is always a small chance that Khabib could come back in some form if a unique opportunity is presented. And there is no getting away from that.