"Floyd Mayweather is cutting the blueprint for these guys" - Henry Cejudo believes Francis Ngannou will fight Tyson Fury next as 'The Gypsy King' will look 'not to go through damage'

Henry Cejudo has suggested that Francis Ngannou will face Tyson Fury in their much-discussed hybrid-rules fight next. ‘Triple C’ indicated that Fury wants to compete in exhibition bouts against fighters who aren’t experienced boxers and thereby take minimal damage whilst maximizing his earnings.

Fury defeated Dillian Whyte in April and then retired from professional boxing, only to reveal in the post-fight interview that he’ll face reigning UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou in a mixed-rules matchup. Ngannou agreed with Fury after joining him in the ring for the announcement. Regardless, as of this time, the UFC hasn’t permitted Ngannou to compete against Fury.

The consensus is that a potential Ngannou-Fury showdown would primarily be an exhibition boxing match with a few added rules. As a result, Fury is favored to beat Ngannou.

On The Triple C & Schmo Show, former two-division UFC champion Henry Cejudo addressed this and noted that Fury is following the blueprint set by retired boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. He insinuated that akin to Mayweather, who’s made a lucrative post-retirement career by facing MMA fighters in exhibition boxing matches, Fury’s looking to do something similar. Cejudo stated:

“Personally, I think Francis is gonna do the fight with 'The Gypsy King', just to kind of get that thing going. I think ‘The Gypsy King’ is going the route of just getting exhibitions. A lot of these fighters now, they just want to win and then just do exhibitions to make money. I think Floyd Mayweather’s cutting that; cutting the blueprint for these guys to be, for them not to go through damage but to set themselves up for the rest of their lives.”

Watch Cejudo discuss the topic at 17:20 in the video below:

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Henry Cejudo on the dream fight between Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones

During the edition of The Triple C & Schmo Show featured in the video above, Cejudo notably put forth his take on Francis Ngannou’s future in the months to come.

Ngannou's expected to return from his knee injury hiatus in late-2022 or early-2023. Speaking of which, Cejudo, who trains former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, feels that an Ngannou-Jones matchup could be on the horizon.

He believes Francis Ngannou will fight Tyson Fury in their hybrid-rules bout, lose, and then return to the UFC. Meanwhile, Jon Jones will make his heavyweight debut against Stipe Miocic and beat the latter. Predicting that Ngannou will then face Jones and lose the UFC heavyweight title, Cejudo said:

“Him [Ngannou] and Jon Jones are going to get in there, and Jon Jones is going to win. And then, Jon Jones is going to defend his belt for how many times till he retires up top.”