Legendary UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping has told Tyson Fury that he could emulate the financial success of Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather with his own crossover bout.
Fury has been talking up the potential of a meeting with his UFC counterpart Jon Jones, while the former heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou who never lost the belt is also keen to get in the ring with the Brit. And his fellow Manchester native Bisping has told him that he could be facing a massive payday for such a bout.
McGregor and Mayweather both pocketed over $100million for their clash in the summer of 2017, but no such crossover has drawn the eyeballs or pay-per-view numbers since. However, with Fury currently the world's top heavyweight in boxing, there would be huge interest in seeing him against MMA's best.
“Apparently Floyd Mayweather made a gigantic $280m," Bisping speculated about the McGregor fight on his YouTube channel. "I mean, that is insane - poor old Conor, he had to get by with just $130m… Would Tyson Fury and Jon Jones do similar numbers? I’m going to say it would.
“Hypothetically speaking, this would be a very hard fight to make. It’s hard enough getting Tyson Fury in a ring with Oleksandr Usyk or Anthony Joshua or any of the other fighters he’s talking about. Usyk should be the fight. Stipe should be the fight for Jon Jones, but I’m telling you, just as a fan, I would love to see it. I am intrigued.”
Bisping's assumption that Fury or Jones would be able to draw such monster numbers would appear to be based on limited information, with neither man proving the monster box office draws that McGregor and Mayweather are. The Brit has tipped the million buys mark once, his 2020 rematch with Deontay Wilder, while Jones has never touched that number as an headliner.
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Of course, the meeting of two superstars could be a massive draw, but to hit the spot of Mayweather vs McGregor's 4.3million would make it one of the biggest fights in history. And Bisping believes that despite the unpredictability of heavyweight bouts in either sport, that Fury would have limited chance in the octagon.
“He’s a big guy. He’s a powerful man,” Bisping continued. “He comes from a fighting family of gypsies. They are tough b******s, simple as that. If it was a street fight where you could bite people and stuff, you never know what Tyson might do. But in a mixed martial arts contest inside the octagon with no weapons, he’s not going to have a bloody chance. He’s not going to have a chance in hell, no way.”
Fury, for his part, has completely rubbished the idea of prospective MMA bout, despite UFC president Dana White's regular calls for such a contest. He has said that he will be happy to prove his position as the 'baddest man on the planet' in the ring, but Ngannou seems a more likely candidate for that fight.
