UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou is on the eve of the most dangerous fight of his career.

On Saturday night, the 35-year-old UFC faces former teammate Ciryl Gane in the main event of UFC 270 in Anaheim California.

However, for several weeks Ngannou has been talking about a crossover to boxing - in order to face WBC world champion Tyson Fury.

The fight with Gane will be the last fight of Ngannou's UFC contract, but company president Dana White believes that he can get another fight out of Ngannou.

Should the champion beat Gane and receive two options for his next fight - Fury and Jon Jones - Ngannou would pick Fury.

“If you give me the two options, I would choose fighting Tyson Fury. After fighting Stipe [Miocic], the Jon Jones fight was on the table, but it seems like nobody really cares about it, so I don’t know," Ngannou said.

“And also, we don’t even know what is the position of Jon Jones right now. I’m not planning my life based on that. I will plan my life based on the facts.

"As many of you might know, my dream since I was a kid was to become a boxer. Along the way, I discovered MMA, which has been great to me. But still that hasn’t taken away that dream of boxing. I always knew that I wanted to get a part of boxing in my career before the end of my career.

"I think sometimes professional fighters can underestimate MMA fighters, but I also think everyone has an opinion. Somebody will say I will easily beat [Fury], somebody will say he will easily beat me, somebody will see an equal fight – that’s the fight business. It’s opinion.”