Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou told to copy Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor

Mayweather and McGregor fought in a 2017 crossover fight and Top Rank President Todd duBoef thinks Fury and Ngannou should take lessons from the pair

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Tyson Fury teases ‘some big news coming’

Top Rank President Todd duBoef thinks Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou should try and promote their crossover fight like Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather did.

Talks of a fight between the two heavyweight combat sports stars originated after Ngannou teased a move from the octagon to the ring.

The UFC heavyweight champion is on the last fight of his contract and is uninterested in signing a new deal unless it allows him to compete in boxing.

McGregor was pardoned from his UFC contract to box Mayweather in 2017, losing by stoppage in a fight that sold 4.3 million buys on pay-per-view.

And duBoef thinks the heavyweights should learn from the promotion leading up to McGregor and Mayweather’s infamous crossover bout.

“It has a sexy little synergy to it. How much does Fury want it? How much does Ngannou want it?” duBoef told MMA Fighting.

“We know that [Floyd] Mayweather and [Conor] McGregor really wanted it, and they were the driving force behind getting that done.

“At the end of the day, it may be the athletes that drive their respective partners to push that done.”

Fury has labelled a fight with Ngannou as a “clash of the titans” and even challenged him to box in 4oz UFC gloves.

Ngannou countered by suggesting a fight with MMA rules that would see both men wear 12oz boxing gloves.

One hurdle the fight would have to overcome is the feud between Top Rank CEO Bob Arum and UFC president Dana White.

But duBoef thinks the two rivals would put their hatred aside to work together.

“I think you guys are pulling a little bit into the personalities of two people, Bob and Dana, and I have a lot of history with a lot of people at the UFC,” he continued.

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“So does Bob. I’ve known Dana for 20-plus, and [UFC COO] Lawrence Epstein and I grew up together as babies, so I wouldn’t play into that. All that is just a lot of good fodder for tabloids.”

Fury has been mandated to defend his WBC heavyweight title against domestic rival Dillian Whyte next, but negotiations for the fight have come to a halt.

Ngannou defends his UFC heavyweight title for the first time next weekend against Ciryl Gane at UFC 270.

And duBoef thinks a fight between Fury and Ngannou would be a big hit on pay-per-view.

“I think it does fantastic in Vegas and the reason why I say that is, looking from a perspective of pay-per-view, I think there would be a very, very big appetite on U.S. pay-per-view for that fight,” he added.

“What we’ve seen with Fury coming from the U.K., the U.K. audience is used to staying up late and paying for the pay-per-view.”

“To have the biggest, baddest man of MMA and the biggest, baddest man of boxing meet in the ring is a no-brainer. There’s not much hype you have to do there.”