Even Tyson Fury has given up trying to pull the wool over the world’s eyes by admitting Francis Ngannou has NO chance of landing a knockout blow tonight.

Boxing’s heavyweight ruler Fury will bank upwards of £50million for a glorified sparring session with the former UFC champion in Saudi Arabia. The mismatch – to crown the so-called ‘Baddest Man on the Planet’ – is effectively a warm-up for Fury’s Christmas date with Oleksandr Usyk – assuming the Brit avoids a freak injury. Ngannou may hold the record for the hardest punch ever registered but his boxing experience amounts to two amateur bouts in his native Cameroon.

He will earn more in tonight’s cash grab than he has over a 10-year career in mixed martial arts – and will be able to call on Mike Tyson’s wisdom between rounds. But having previously insisted he fears Ngannou as much as he did Wladimir Klitschko or Deontay Wilder, Fury’s mask finally slipped. He couldn’t beat me if he had a machete and a nine-millimetre gun in his hands,” he said. “How is he going to beat me, please! It’s alright me saying this is a 50-50 fight, is it b******s a 50-50 fight.

“I’m going to take him to school and I’m going to show him what a right hand feels like. I intend to punish him for a while, enjoy it, and put on a show then bang, chin him. He might be as tough as bricks, he’s never been stopped but he’s never been hit by a proper boxing puncher.”

Usyk will be ringside at the 22,000-capacity makeshift arena in Riyadh with confirmation of his December 23 meeting with Fury expected to follow the final bell. The pair finally reached an agreement to crown the first undisputed champion in the division since Lennox Lewis in 1999.

But Fury has lost more sleep playing landlord to his property empire than he has his impending desert double-header. “I sold 100 properties recently because it was too much of a headache,” he said. "Imagine dealing with your own family’s problems then times that by 100. These people are struggling to pay £500-a-month rent and they’re thinking, ‘he’s a multi-millionaire, he doesn’t need rent’ so it’s pointless. I’m a big softie and tell them to pay me whenever – you never get the rent then.”