While we understand that promoters are gonna promote, Eddie Hearn has appeared to add some substance to the media rumours linking heavyweight boxer Dillian Whyte to a fight with Francis Ngannou.
For months, both men have been jawing with one another on social media — with Whyte reiterating his challenge in recent days — and Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn appears to be on board.
“I never really thought we would take this too seriously, but in the last week we have to take this seriously,” Hearn admitted to Sky Sports. “The aim for Dillian Whyte is to become a world boxing champion, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see Dillian Whyte against Ngannou towards the end of this year. Obviously we know Povetkin is next, but whether it’s October, November, December.”
Whyte, who has several professional kickboxing bouts under his belt (as well as a sole victory in MMA) has predicted that he would be far too much for Ngannou, and Heard has even speculated that a fight between the two could alternate between MMA and boxing rounds.
“I’m going to be reaching out to Dana White and saying: ‘Tell me how this works? Can we actually do this? Are we doing it in a ring? Are we doing it in a cage? Are we doing one round of each?’ It’s really got a lot of momentum and a lot of promise. I think there’s a really good chance it could happen.”
Hearn also says that there has been significant interest from fights fans, curious as to how a legitimate fight between the two sluggers would go down.
“There’s not just interest online, there is huge interest everywhere for that fight,” said Hearn. “When I first started discussing it, it was just something that had been mentioned. Fans of both disciplines have always said: ‘Whyte against Ngannou is a cracker’. I’ve started to receive a lot of interest from numerous people about staging that fight now. I think it does colossal numbers.
“It’s the first real, genuine crossover fight. I know we had Floyd and we had Conor, but this is a different kind of fight. This is a different kind of experience. This is brutality at its absolute rawest.
“This fight does huge numbers. It’s got the boxing fans, it’s got the MMA fans, it’s got the intrigue. It’s got everything.”
