How thing can change in the span of a few months.

It was just a few months ago when John Fury, the father of WBC heavyweight champion Tyson, said upon viewing footage of Francis Ngannou hitting pads that he wouldn’t last a round with his son, and that their fight would be little more than a formality — a heavy sparring session ahead of a ‘real’ fight with Oleksandr Usyk.

Soon into Ngannou’s professional boxing debut — particularly towards the end of the third round when Ngannou dropped Fury with a flush left hook — it was obvious that John Fury’s pre-fight prediction required recalibration. While Fury won the fight by close (and contentious) split decision, it was Ngannou who earned the plaudits and, as was confirmed recently, a second high profile fight, this time against Anthony Joshua in March.

And according to the elder Fury, if Ngannou lands clean the fight will be over swiftly.

“Ngannou will turn out to be a menace,’ John Fury said of the fight to Metro. “When I saw [Ngannou] box, he looked like a man who has had 30 professional fights. If he comes to fight, it will be a great night for him.

‘It is a 50-50 fight. But if Ngannou hits him, it will be over. AJ looked great in December, he was a different man, he was focused, he wanted it. That determination was key. Some people get better through a loss and that’s what happened to AJ. No more pressure about his record. Now he’s not so far away from becoming a three time champion.”