UFC legend Michael Bisping backs Dillian Whyte targetting showdown with MMA monster Francis Ngannou. – The Sun

UFC legend Michael Bisping has backed Dillian Whyte’s bid to battle MMA monster Francis Ngannou.

Britain’s former middleweight champion of the world trained with the Brixton Body Snatcher when they worked together in a fight camp.

Whyte was a champion kickboxer and made his professional MMA debut with a 12-second win before committing full-time to boxing.

And the WBC’s No1 contender is seriously considering a switch back to the cage to become the first heavyweight champ across both codes.

Bisping said: “I trained with Dillian back in the day, I know him a little bit because he came up to help a training camp with Rampage Jackson many years ago.

“Personally I like to see the best boxers fight the best boxers and the best martial artists to fight the best martial artists. Too often it is a set-up for someone to lose.

“But Ngannou would be a good opponent, he cannot wrestle to save his life but if he connects in those 4oz gloves, it’s goodnight. The gloves are only really there to protect your hands.”

OCTAGON SWITCH

Whyte told SunSport in March that he was eyeing up a career change and he knows exactly how he would compete against champion Stipe Miocic and Ngannou.

From his Portugal training camp, ahead of his postponed fight with Alexander Povetkin, Whyte said: “The heavyweight guys over there, champion Stipe Miocic and Francis Ngannou, are elite and I would have to work on my grappling and wrestling.

“But I know, standing up and boxing in 4oz gloves, I could knock ANY of their top-ten heavyweights out.

“I would need time to get my MMA conditioning back because it is totally different to boxing where, if you are clever, you can take time in the three minute rounds.

“I have called Ngannou a coward because, for a guy who is 6ft 4in tall and 18st, he has not shown enough heart in his two defeats.

"He was on a ten-fight win streak, mostly first-round wins against journeymen, and as soon as he stepped up he lost twice, when people did not just stand there and let him hit them.

"You get these guys in boxing as well as MMA, when they are on top in a fight they are a problem, full of confidence and trying to bully you.

"But as soon as you stand up to them and hit them back, they shrink. Ngannou quit in his two most recent defeats because he did not like the way the fights were going.”

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