{"id":296195,"date":"2023-11-04T10:25:08","date_gmt":"2023-11-04T10:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports-life-news.com\/?p=296195"},"modified":"2023-11-04T10:25:08","modified_gmt":"2023-11-04T10:25:08","slug":"saudi-arabia-plotting-huge-december-23-fight-with-ngannou-headlining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports-life-news.com\/boxing\/saudi-arabia-plotting-huge-december-23-fight-with-ngannou-headlining\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Arabia plotting &apos;HUGE&apos; December 23 fight with Ngannou headlining"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Saudi Arabia is still plotting a &#8216;HUGE&#8217; December 23 fight&#8230; with Francis Ngannou set to headline after Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk&#8217;s blockbuster clash was pushed back until February<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Francis Ngannou is likely to headline the December 23 show in Saudi Arabia<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>An announcement about the fight is expected at some point in the next week<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Eddie Hearn reacts to Fury vs Ngannou on THE HOOK &#8211; our new boxing podcast<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Saudi Arabia is still reportedly planning a gigantic December 23 show with Francis Ngannou as the headliner &#8211; even without Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The latter two had been set to fight on that date but Fury emerged battered and bruised after his controversial win against Ngannou\u00a0in October.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Fury was even knocked down and now needs more time to recover than expected after his narrow scorecard win.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, Ngannou looks set to take their place at the top of the bill just before Christmas and an announcement is expected next week, according to BoxingNews.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Zhilei Zhang and Joseph Parker are among the names rumoured to be possible opponents for the former UFC champion.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/04\/08\/77395001-12709695-image-a-6_1699088336394.jpg\" height=\"463\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Francis Ngannou is reportedly set to headline the December 23 event in Saudi Arabia\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/04\/08\/77395015-12709695-image-a-7_1699088371378.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk were originally supposed to but will now meet in February<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/04\/08\/77395011-12709695-image-a-8_1699088398238.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The Gypsy King needs longer to recover than expected after a bruising contest with Ngannou<\/p>\n<p>Boxing News&#8217; report also states that Martin Bakole and Moses Itauma are expected to be invited back after impressing the Saudis with their respective knockouts.<\/p>\n<p>Usyk and Fury were originally take part in the December 23 event, mid-way through the Riyadh season and the former&#8217;s promoter said that the Gypsy King &#8216;cannot escape that&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>After his fight with Ngannou, with nasty purple bruising around his battered left eye,\u00a0Fury insisted: &#8216;I&#8217;ve only got some surface bruising.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;There was a little bit of a head clash and a few punches but nothing major, no serious injuries.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Morecambe&#8217;s WBC heavyweight king had agreed a deal with the WBA, IBF and WBO to contest all the belts.<\/p>\n<p>When asked flat-out if December 23 was still on the cards, he said: &#8216;I leave all that to my team, I don&#8217;t get involved&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/04\/09\/77395025-12709695-Usyk_and_Fury_were_supposed_to_fight_for_all_the_belts_in_Decemb-a-25_1699090741281.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Usyk and Fury were supposed to fight for all the belts in December but that will have to wait<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2023\/10\/25\/The%20Hook_Promo_Desktop.636.png\"><br \/>\nSource: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/boxing\/article-12709695\/Saudi-Arabia-plotting-HUGE-December-23-fight-Francis-Ngannou-set-headline-Tyson-Fury-Oleksandr-Usyks-blockbuster-clash-pushed-February.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saudi Arabia is still plotting a &#8216;HUGE&#8217; December 23 fight&#8230; with Francis Ngannou set to headline after Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk&#8217;s blockbuster clash was pushed back until February Francis Ngannou is likely to headline the December 23 show in Saudi Arabia&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Saudi Arabia plotting &amp;apos;HUGE&amp;apos; December 23 fight with Ngannou headlining - Sports-Life-News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sports-life-news.com\/boxing\/saudi-arabia-plotting-huge-december-23-fight-with-ngannou-headlining\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Saudi Arabia plotting &amp;apos;HUGE&amp;apos; 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