Tyson Fury’s path to this moment certainly wasn’t linear.
The WBC heavyweight champion of the world and pound-for-pound legend is set for a crossover boxing match against Francis Ngannou, who emerged as one of the biggest attractions and the heavyweight champion in UFC before he parted ways with the promotion, on Saturday (1 p.m., ESPN PPV) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The bout will be under boxing rules with 10 three-minute rounds.
It won’t count on Fury’s boxing record — he enters at 33-0-1 — and it will be Ngannou’s first boxing fight, though he has a 17-3 MMA record.
Fury’s heavyweight title will not be on the line, either.
Regardless, it’s the type of bout that demonstrates Fury’s long-standing superstardom atop the sport — the most popular boxer against one of the most popular MMA fighters in a fight that is expected to draw huge ratings and be extremely lucrative for both fighters.
Few others have the stature to secure and sell a crossover event like this.
“This opportunity arose, to fight Francis Ngannou on the world’s biggest stage in Saudi Arabia, it was like ‘wow, this is unbelievable.’ When they told me what was gonna happen, and how it was gonna be, I jumped at the chance,” Fury told The Post ahead of the bout. “It’s two worlds colliding.”
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But 10 years ago, Fury was at one of his lowest points of his career, and the path to that current stardom and power over the sport seemed elusive.
It occurred locally when Fury made his United States debut against Steve Cunningham at the Madison Square Garden Theater.
It was supposed to be Fury’s coming out party to the world, but he was viciously knocked down in the second round.
Fury somehow managed to recover and later knocked out Cunningham in the seventh round, the latter’s first time being stopped.
If Fury had stayed down, his career likely would have gone dramatically differently.
But 10 years later, he’s creating unprecedented and the most heavily-anticipated bouts in the world.
It was one of the biggest turning points of his career.
“On that day 10 years ago when I fought Cunningham at the Garden, and I got up off the canvas to knock him out, I knew it was stardom all the way,” Fury said. “I knew I couldn’t lose because like Frank Sinatra said, ‘if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.’ And I made it in New York City. So, I knew I had a bright, bright future.
“It’s not been easy. I’ll tell the truth, it hasn’t been easy. But it’s been perseverance and dedication and willing myself to keep going and knowing my worth. I hear a lot of famous people say ‘if you know your worth, go get it.’ I know my worth, and I went and got it. And I ended up being very successful at what I did.”
Fury notably did not fight for nearly three years between 2015-18 amid mental health, drug and alcohol battles.
Through his career’s highest and lowest moments, Fury said he believes he has stayed the same.
He wouldn’t be where he is now otherwise.
“I’m still the same old G,” Fury said. “I haven’t really changed apart from I’ve lost all my hair, which is sh–ty but whatever, we get on with it. I still do the same things, still the same person, still live in the same area. I just try to be true to myself, who I am.
“It’s always good to believe in yourself and give yourself the props that you believe that you deserve. First of all, you’ve got to convince yourself and then you can start to convince everybody else. And that’s what I did. I convinced myself that I was the one, the neo. And then I had to prove it. And I proved to the world that I was that neo. And I’m continuing to do that.”
Fury announced a short-lived retirement in Aug. 2022 but returned to fight Derek Chisora later that year.
Now, Fury says he wants 10 more fights.
What changed?
“I thought that I’d be a lot more content outside of the boxing ring, having done everything, having earned millions of dollars, and became successful at what I did,” Fury said. “And I realized that it wasn’t all the things that come with boxing that made me happy. It was actually being involved in boxing that made me happy.
“That’s why I’m back. Back for more punishment.”