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It has been confirmed that Anthony Joshua will be fighting Francis Ngannou in Saudi Arabia on March 9th. Deontay Wilder was supposed to be the original opponent but that plan fell apart after Wilder’s upset loss to  Joseph Parker.

Anthony Joshua is coming off his best win since losing his titles to Andy Ruiz. Francis Ngannou’s previous fight was his pro debut against Tyson Fury in which he scored a knockdown against the lineal heavyweight champion.

I doubt Joshua will take this fight lightly so we will see if Ngannou is a real contender or if his performance against Fury was just a fluke.

https://www.espn.com/boxing/story/_/id/39249014/francis-ngannou-anthony-joshua-square-boxing-match

I'd say it's a wise choice for Joshua. This would probably make him more money than a match against Wilder. And at this point in his career, it's probably money that matters most.

Wilder was just convincingly defeated. He didn't even win a round in one of the official scorecards. But he remains powerful. He could still defeat Joshua. There's the high risk. Ngannou, on the other hand, is also gifted with power, also fresh from a defeat. But he somehow became a star among boxing fans. He got everybody's respect by sending the Gypsy King down to the canvas. Joshua could be defeated by Ngannou but it's a better risk than be defeated by Wilder.

I haven't been too interested in boxing but my elders at home always watch this fights. I guess I have held alot about this too great fighters and I am looking forward to watching this match let's see who wins though this two Africans would be my favorites if I had been into boxing.

I don't like the fact that this two guys have to meet to prove a point. Each of them is going to aim at proving a point that he is worth his position and Francis is going to be proving a point that he wasn't just lucky on his performance against fury in there previous fight, while Joshua will be fight to maintain his reputation. Well it's just the game let's sit back and watch .

I don’t think either of them have a chance against Francis after seeing him fight Tyson and lay him on the canvas. We all know he won that fight… This will be another interesting matchup but I think Francis has this. That guy is just a beast. Anthony Joshua better be getting a huge payday because if he loses this will definitely hurt his career.

This is a big surprise and a big turn of events just a week before the Saudi big events all talks were all Wilder and Joshua and after Wilder lost to Parker this happen, Joshua faced a big obstacle on his journey back to regaining the titles he loses, Ngannou is a dangerous fight, and he can get knock out here if he goes to the ring without a good plan, we have seen how Ngannou almost beat Fury.
He should be very prepared here, I bet on Ngannou here I don't think he can take Ngannou's punch, and besides Joshua does not have a good lateral movement he is an easy target, if Ngannou wins this fight there's a possibility he can get a crack on the title and it's his third fight only.

Are we living in another reality heehhe. Also, does Francis Ngannou have any plans on fightning in MMA again? It appears that he will retire after 1 or 2 more fights in the boxing ring.

In any case, on the fight itself, what is the height and reach difference between Joshua and Ngannou? If Ngannou has the advantage on both height and reach, I reckon Joshua might have much difficulty in closing the distance to start his offense.

Everyone already knows Ngannou's knockout punch that almost made Fury lie down on a stretcher hehehe.

This is a make-or-break for both fighters whoever wins this fight will have a chance to fight the Usyk-Fury fight and eventually win all the titles in the heavyweight division, its Joshua's chance for redemption, and its Ngannou's chance for greatness as no MMA fighter has gone to challenge for a title much more a heavyweight title, this is going to be an interesting fight and worth watching, the Saudi's are doing great bringing all these great fights, after there's a lot fo great fights coming from the Saudi promotions.

I don't think that Ngannou will come back to UFC, he had beef with Dana White and not sure if other organizations is willing to get him because if there is, he wouldn't box against Fury. And he get his biggest paycheck in boxing, so doesn't make sense for him if he can fight like 2-3 more and then fill his bank with millions.

Haven't check the stats, but if Ngannou was able to put Fury in the canvass, just imagine if that power touches AJ fragile chin, he might not get back from the canvass and Ngannou winning by knockout. So still, this is going to be a interesting fight and fans are going to love this.

And perhaps Wilder is kicking himself, as he is supposedly the fighter that is going to face Joshua and supposedly there is a big money in the table for them. So we might not see that fight as it seems that Wilder lost everything already and could be out of his prime already. On the other hand, Ngannou's performance against Fury can't be denied that he is for real as others totally write him off that he won't last a distance against the best heavyweight of our generation and yet he knock him down and almost pull a upset. So now he will be taking over Wilder's place to face Joshua. I might put some bet here with Francis winning specially that he will be a underdog here. So I voted for Francis Ngannou by KO.

With what happened with the Fury vs Ngannou fight, I'm going to bet that this fight is going to be on Anthony Joshua's favor but if Ngannou knocks out Anthony Joshua and makes sure that he's securing a lot more knockdowns than usual then this will probably be a win for Ngannou although I still have a doubt that this is going to be a clean fight in terms of decision so that's why I believe that it's Ngannou's only chance which I do believe he has a higher chance this time because Fury is much tougher than Joshua so Ngannou's power punches is definitely going to shake Joshua even more than Fury. I'll bet on Ngannou just in case the corruption of the boxing federation doesn't touch or affect this match as much as the Fury vs. Ngannou fight.

Francis by KO thats for sure. Francis eating the punch of Fury like its nothing will only make AJs punch less effective.

Good for Francis not waiting for Fury rematch. He didnt fumble the bag this time but Fury for not taking the immediate rematch. Dana goes to the ER again while overdriving AJ shill.

I think Joshua will win. The performance of Ngannou vs Fury was good but Fury was not at his best and now we will see if Ngannou really stands a chance or not. I think a rematch against Fury would bring more money to the table, but also against Joshua it will generate a lot interest and will be a big payday for both men.

Hyped. I'd heard there was strong rumours about this fight last week and glad the Saudi's have now made it happen. I honestly can't even predict this fight. If Ngannou can floor Fury he can surely do the same to AJ. Ngannou has said that he didn't go in 100% against Fury because he was worried he would gas out quickly and Fury would take advantage of that. Now he knows he can go 10 rounds with the current heavyweight champ I think this makes him much more dangerous. I think I'd put money on either a Francis KO or AJ on points.


Yes. He's signed a multi-fight deal with the PFL and also has equity in the company if I understand correctly. The trouble with the PFL is there's nobody really for him to fight. Name me one PFL heavyweight? They just don't have the roster yet though Francis has said he will fight MMA this year though maybe things will change if he does beat AJ, but I doubt he can just abandon his PFL contract. Either way he can surely do both and I don't see anyone troubling him much in the PFL.


I heard some rumours that Wilder might be fighting Zhang on the undercard which would be awesome. https://talksport.com/sport/1701854/deontay-wilder-zhilei-zhang-anthony-joshua-francis-ngannou-undercard/


Hopefully we get another stacked card like The Day of Reckoning one.

Firstly, Saudi Arabia is becoming one of the top spot for many international events and not just football but boxing promotions and matches too.

Secondly, Anthony Joshua has a lot of emotions to pour into this match against former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou,  because having lost on two consecutive occasions, he did well to put his career back on track with a comprehensive win over Otto Wallin last month in Saudi Arabia.
This is going to be a difficult one to predict but I would stand with the Nigerian born fighter rather than root for Ngannou to win after the 10 round bout match in Riyadh.

There is no point in fighting Wilder now, but defeating Ngannou would be a very big victory, because everyone understands that Ngannou defeated Fury, it was just a show in which one knockdown was not enough to win, it was necessary to knock out Fury.

But Joshua must understand that if he loses, his career will be at risk, because if a professional loses to a person far from boxing, then it will be a very resonant defeat. I think that Ngannou will defeat Joshua, and perhaps he shouldn’t have agreed to this fight, this is to some extent an all-in fight for Joshua.

Of the two, Joshua is the more technical boxer with Total fights of 30 and 24 knockouts so if the fight goes the distance Joshua will win by a decision, but if Ngannou can land big punches, I don't think Joshua can take the punches of Francis, of the two Julius is the harder punch, so Joshua should not engage against Ngannou he should do what Fury did, be technical do not engage and work on fighting through distance.

Ngannou's lack of experience will show up if Joshua fights intelligently, there are still a lot of flaws in Ngannou fighting style so he should fight him like what he did against Andy Ruiz Jr., fight intelligently.
For Ngannou to beat Joshua he must throw him out of his game, he tends to be out of focus when hit by big punches, so in this fight, it is all about who can properly implement the strategy.

This is a big match, a very entertaining fight for sure. Now, it's official that Francis Ngannou has become a superstar in boxing as this next fight for him is still against a popular boxer who won a championship before. This, it will measure how strong Francis Ngannou is because the last time, there were rumors that Fury didn't take the fight seriously, so we will see if he can still deliver an impressive performance, or a win here.


Nope, he had 3 losses already, first from Andy Ruiz, then two against Oleksandr Usyk.

You can review his record from https://boxrec.com/en/proboxer/659461

Definitely, it will hurt his career. I don't know why Joshua would pick up a fight with Francis after seeing how he dealt with Fury's face. I really don't like this move because it will be another match loss for Joshua, who wants his boxing career to be resurrected back to the boxing field after losing his world heavyweight title to Usyk twice(2021 and 2022).

Anyway, another man's downfall is a rise to the other. This is a win match for Francis against Joshual in my own opinion and it will help Francis's career in boxing since he left UFC for boxing. 

Joshua has a decent chance of winning this fight compared to fighting Fury or Usyk again which are legit champions. And those two are in a unification fight, so Joshua must have to be busy looking for a fight and this came on time. Most of you might be thinking that Ngannou will beat Joshua because the latter has a weak chip, but let's just watch and see as the gambling experts does not say the same.

And we can confim that on the betting odds.

https://www.bjpenn.com/mma-news/francis-ngannou/opening-odds-released-for-francis-ngannou-vs-anthony-joshua/



That's for sure, but he has to win first. I hope he isn't hype because of what he did to Fury. This one is different though because Joshua sure gonna prepare hard for this.

Dana White is getting desperate right now, and he looks more stupid with every new fight of Ngannou.
Francis was so scared that he is now fighting with the biggest fighters in the world and he is doing it in boxing ;D
Against Tyson Fury I thought Francis didnt have a chance, but after I watched the last fight I think he can do even more against Anthony Joshua.
I cant wait to see this fight, but even more I want him to see back in MMA.

a lot of people can tell Francis actually won that fight.
i don't think he is coming back to UFC, he already signed under PFL and the rumor was that he would fight at least 3 times a year.

Joshua vs Ngannou wouldn't be any different from Fury Fight but i think Francis will win this time. AJ was not a big puncher when he was exposed by Ruiz. since this is happening in Saudi again then Francis will be pocketing millions again.

I am not talking about the UFC. Everyone knows that he has not signed the contract offer with uncle Dana. I am talking about fighting in MMA and he has signed a contract with the PFL, where he was allowed to fight in boxing. In the UFC, uncle Dana would not give him this permission.


The PFL can create something similar to the gladiators during Roman times and have Francis Ngannou fight 3 lightweight fighters in an entertaining 3 vs. 1 hehehehehe.

His chances are high because of his power and we all know that AJ chin was broken already by Ruiz and exposed it and now AJ can't take punishment or getting hit in the chin by powerful punchers like in this case, Ngannou.

Maybe AJ will try to run and cover, but if this fight goes to distance, he might not have that stamina just like in the Usyk fight wherein we see him getting tired in the championship rounds and Usyk stealing that important rounds. But if Ngannou like in the Fury fight, hit AJ early, this fight might not go to distance.

He will certainly respect the power of Ngannou since he already witness what he can do. This will be tough for Ngannou to be honest, so I hope we won't get too hype with his 2nd fight in boxing after his impressive performance, because if Fury didn't make it serious, then I would say that Ngannou is in big trouble here. AJ is also a knockout artist, but he cannot be too reskless as that has been his weakness in the fights that he losses, he shoulld learn from his mistake.

I see this fight like AJ vs Andy Ruiz, that if AJ will not be careful, he will end up losing by KO.

On one hand Francis Ngannou is doing exactly what he has planned from the beginning - going away from MMA to boxing, facing AJ, Tyson and Wilder, and earning big money. On the other hand, for boxing, it is not good when a guy from other sports came and start to box on same or better level as champion and top boxers. It shows that boxing aint for selected and unique, and anyone from outside can become a champion.

AJ is not in good mental condition. If first started with a loss to Ruiz, continued with to losses to Usyk. Like it or not, Ngannou gonna KO AJ. Not a boxer is going to KO a former boxing champion. It might look that AJ has lost his motivation or is no longer hungry for big wins.

It will be another interesting fight, Joshua is on a streak of 3 consecutive victories, with his last victory being in the fight against Otto Wallin in the fifth round, after that fight Joshua said that she is available to fight against him at any time. any opponent, these statements showed that Joshua is very confident that he can beat any opponent. Joshua beat Jermaine Franklin and Robert Helenius and also beat Wallin in a fight in which Joshua was very determined to attack Wallin, Joshiua was more agile than Wallin and managed to get out of Wallin's target area. It was a fight that Joshua won with merit.

on the other side we have Ngannou, the guy who was very close to beating Tyson Fury, who doesn't remember that photo where Tyson Fury after suffering a strong punch from Ngannou? We've all seen it, I wonder if we'll see something like this again:

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/624/cpsprodpb/B333/production/_131557854_gettyimages-1762190713.jpg

ngannou is a very strong guy, but in the fight against tyson fyru, tyson wasn't at his peak, he hadn't fought for a long time, something like 11 months without fighting, so in a way, tyson wasn't very strong in that fight, but ngannou showed that he has great punching power to the point of taking down tyson. But the fight against Joshua will be completely different, Joshua is a good fighter and he is fighting frequently and has a winning streak, in my opinion Joshua will come out victorious in this fight, he seems to me to be better prepared for this fight. Even if ngannou's punching power is strong, as long as he can't hit Joshua, they won't be dangerous. Tayson won this fight

Fury coming unprepared doesn't come out true since Tom Aspinall said Fury had been training hard for that day. his camp said Fury was pretty sharp in sparring, he was in shape. he won but he just didn't expect Francis to be hard to knock out. that's why i think he will be victorious this time.

and Francis losing this fight will not affect him anymore since he still has PFL contract. he already lost in the Fury fight so even if Francis gets knocked out and loses, he still gains fans and all the props go to Francis while all his naysayers like Dana can only watch.

as long as you have the skills and passion to live with this sports, i don't see anything wrong in that. everyone is free to enter in this sports so long they have the power to show what they got under their sleeves for this particular sports.

and i can understand if a lot of users here voted for Ngannou to KO AJ. but look at the odds, AJ is still the favourite of the bookies. so this is a very good chance to bet on Ngannou being the underdog of this match. the stake odds' are looking like this -

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2024/01/07/s3cf2.png
https://stake.com/sports/boxing/international/international-matchups

I think the fact that Anthony Joshua's career is at stake makes the match even more interesting. This is a battle between a former UFC champion Ngannou and former unified world heavyweight champion, Joshua which makes it a great match for the challenge.

Both guys have recorded great success and big wins in the last year, for Joshua, he was able to secure a three straight win throughout last year with his last one being his fight against Wallen when he mentioned that he was ready to fight with anyone at anywhere.

On the other side, Ngannou also performed outstandingly in the last year with the most profound one which was his fight and victory against the popular Tyson Fury in his first professional game. Let's see what this fight will result to before making conclusions and at same time, we will need to also hear from the press conference scheduled to happen on the 15th of January, this month.

Tyson Fury was also a heavy favourite in a fight against Francis Ngannou, but hardy won that fight. AJ isnt famous for having an iron chin and standing up after a heavy punch, so I dont understand why odds are in his favour. Ngannou has surprised and impressed everyone in his previous fight. This time he is going to be better, while AJ will be testing himself against a real thread. Or people think that AJ boxing skills are better? His fight against Usyk showed that AJ is very straightforward.

As to your first clause - that is the issue. This shows that anyone can go and box with champions or top of top boxers on the same level. This shows that boxing champions aint so unique and exceptional.

It seems like Anthony Joshua will never underestimate Francis Ngannou because he saw how Ngannou fought against Fury and in this fight it was really surprising because Ngannou was able to make Fury feel knockdown which of course surprised us all.
A Fury who has become heavyweight boxer and is considered monster can feel knockdown from Ngannou, who could say that this fight was his first debut in boxing, but Ngannou was also tough fighter before when he was with the UFC so he has strong punches.

Anthony Joshua may be more experienced because he is truly professional boxer who has won the unified heavyweight championship several times and also won several other titles.
But Ngannou is not beginner, he is like fighter who can surprise Anthony Joshua like when he fought Fury and of course there is possibility that Ngannou can beat Anthony Joshua if he can fight until the last round is finished and win on points.

Seeing how Francis Ngannou trains, it is clear that he has prepared everything from the start for the fight he will have in the future, whoever his opponent is, Ngannou will still try his best and get his first win in his boxing debut.
We are all looking to this fight and I want to see Mike Tyson smile seeing his protege win the fight against Anthony Joshua.

We should not insert Ngannou's as a former UFC champion as this is boxing. But he has proven himself that he can punch and box as if he was a pro-boxer because that's what we have seen in him against Fury.

I do agree though that Joshua's career is on the line here, if he still wanted to be relevant and go for the All British clash against Tyson Fury in the future. So he needs to win here and it will be good if he can win convincingly so that we can compare his win against Fury's performance against Ngannou. And let's say if he wins by knockout then he can talk trash against Fury and set up that big fight in London.

My reaction to this fight is quite mixed because I like Anthony Joshua based on his origins and then I like Francis also because he is African and I can relate to his struggles, so I do not know who to support and I just want the best man to win in the fight. Francis had a very good fight against one of the greatest fighters in history and Anthony Joshua if he isn't careful will get disgraced and become Francis first official boxing win. Both fighters have powerful punches, a KO is very possible.

Definitely he shouldn't, we have discussed Fury's training though and some of us might conclude that he underestimate Francis and it almost cost him that fight and the big money paycheck against Usyk. Nevertheless, the judges awarded him the score, but not after Ngannou score a knockdown on him.

Now, Joshua doesn't have a good chin or at least recuperation that Fury had. So if by chance Ngannou landed flushed on his chin, it might be over. Joshua knows this for sure and his camp will have to train or put up a good strategy to avoid that power shot. So this could be another close one for Joshua again.

This is going to be an epic match. Two great fighters and it's going to be difficult to predict the actual winner of this game. But as a fan of Anthony Joshua I expect him to win this game as he has faced numerous difficult and stronger opponents and he has won't most of those fights.

I think we are already hype and on the bandwagon of Francis after that great performance against Fury. And even if he lost that fight, it gain him a great deal of boxing fans and so as underdog, he could get a huge money bet.


Or even worst, Francis power is really raw and just like what you said, even if he is careful, if Francis can find that small opening like in the Fury fight and time Joshua and hit him when he is not expecting, Ngannou will win by KO.

Bookmakers must be crazy for giving such high odds for Ngannou win, after we all know how what happened in his first boxing fight against Tyson Fury.
This is a gift and it pays even better if you choose to bet on Fight going to distance, no matter who wins this fight.
A lot of things can change until March, and refs can again make controversial decision, but I think odds will soon drop on Ngannou.

Ngannou will be a hard opponent for Joshua. But this is going to be a huge match, so still worth it. He will definitely be receiving a nice paycheck for this.

I think Joshua can handle Ngannou if he makes sure he has a lot of air in his tank. Ngannou isn't really a boxer. He cannot last the entire fight without breathing heavily. Joshua has this problem as well, but I think his tank will last longer than Ngannou's. And with more training, he will improve it.

Joshua shouldn't commit the error of trading blows with Francis. It will be his end. So he better be throwing those jabs and maintain a safe distance. He needs to be a wise boxer.

Looking at the votes it seems that Nganmou winning for Knockout against Joshua but i doubt
that Anthony Joshua will just give this fight like that so this will be an interesting fight and i have not betting
for long now so maybe I consider putting bet for Joshua this time , will be looking for spread to decide once
it happens.

Fury did not really test Ngannou's punch resistance because he fought cautiously after getting dropped and didn't throw many punches. AJ is a more powerful puncher than Fury so he has a better chance of winning by knockout. AJ also gets hurt easier so if he gets hit like Fury did, he might not survive. Both men, Joshua and Ngannou, have devastating power and are capable of changing the course of a fight with a single punch. This unpredictability of the outcome is what makes the fight so intriguing

It is because Joshua's reputation has been shattered by Andy Ruiz, i mean he could be easily knockout as Ngannou is a power puncher if those punches land flush to the chin, i don't think Joshua could survive but that is one scenario the other being Joshua also hurting Ngannou easily as he also packs a punch. As what @FinneysTrueVision has said, this is an interesting fight as both have power and we know in boxing, a single punch could turn the fight around.

AJ reputation was shaken badly after two losses to Usyk. That first fight against Ruiz showed that AJ did not take him seriously or came unprepared for the fight (in interview AJ told that his weight was unusual for him, he was never so heavy before). But two consecutive losses to Usyk, that followed by "how you beat me?" when AJ freaked out. I would say that Ngannou or media will get into AJ head and he would feel uncomfortable during fight. And the predator wont miss that opportunity.

And to add to that, his chin, although we have been suspected that it's weak specially in the Klitscho fight, nevertheless we haven't seen him going down to a punch. But Andy Ruiz exposed him and the Usyk boxing skills shows that Joshua have a heard time beating a technical boxer. So in all, it's going to be a very dangerous fight because Ngannou can moved and then he has that power to knock him out.

With that, fans here think that Ngannou has a good chance to score a knockout punch.

But if I'm Joshua's camp though, I will make sure that Joshua will shows resiliency in this fight and unpredictability so that Ngannou can't execute his power on him.

We can also speculate on how much AJ and Ngannou are going to earn for this fight :D Does anyone knows the numbers? Definitely gonna be lower than Ngannou vs Tyson, but as the even is going to be in Saudi Arabia again, we might see some nice zeroes :D Btw funny how fighters negotiate for months and years about their opponents and paycheck, and now AJ fights in less than 3 months again. Ngannou has more time to prepare for it.

Good question mate, so I did try to search for it, reports says that he earn $10 million in the Fury fight. But if you think that he will earn lower, you are wrong,


https://www.givemesport.com/anthony-joshua-vs-francis-ngannou-estimated-fight-purses/

So Ngannou is the real winner here, after he goes to boxing, his 1st fight alone give him his biggest paycheck.

And then we expect him getting more against AJ in the Middle East as the Saudi's is willing to shell out those oil money in boxing right now.

Yeah, Ngannou has a high chance of winning a knockout here, i think his only chance because if this go to the distance, Joshua for sure will win as he is more technical than the former. As for me, AJ's confidence is not in him yet after that Ruiz lose, that's very evident to his two losses to Usyk. For me, a fight with Wilder is more risky than this one because Wilder just threw punches wildly.

Personally, I'm going to back AJ to win this fight as I want him to face Fury next for the "Battle of Britain".

I looked at how much fighters get for a fight, and Joshua will receive about €50 million, and Ngannou about €20 million.

Why is there such a big difference, is it because Ngannou is not such an important fighter in the boxing world? Well, it seems that his decision to break his contract with the UFC was the right decision and now he will earn a lot of money for these two fights.

But it would be cool if Ngannou could beat Joshua. Ngannou is considered the underdog in this fight, but it seems to me that he is a very strong fighter and has enough talent (he showed this in the fight with Fury) to defeat Joshua.

I know Francis' promotion is called Gimmik Promotions but I think that's going a bit too far. I think the best thing right now for them would be to try do some one off fights with ex-UFC heavyweights or maybe even some mixed-rules fights against boxers. Francis pretty much stays on his feet anyway so it'll basically a boxing match but with MMA gloves. Wilder was in discussion to fight Francis in the PFL in a hybrid fight but I'm not sure if they can front him the money he wants but maybe Wilder will have to start taking paycuts now if he keeps losing.


Francis is just built different though and lets not forget he started out as a boxer and pretty much just boxes in MMA anyway. I think a bigger question people should be maybe asking is is Tyson Fury that good?


They've said 8 figures so it's 10 million+. I suspect it'll be somewhere between 20-50 million tops.

This is a big fight, so most likely he will get a huge paycheck at that range. Now, I'm wondering why big fights held in Saudi Arabia gets more money.

Anyway, as per his previous fights earnings especially against Usyk, it was reported that he earned $80 million on two fights.
https://www.marca.com/en/boxing/2023/12/22/6585c8f0e2704e23b78b45cd.html

So, we can tell that despite AJ is not a champion anymore, his popularity still give him an opportunity to earn more money.

And, it's given that fights in higher division usually earn bigger revenue compared to the lowest.

Ngannou will not get that kind of figure if he is still in the UFC, that's more than all the combined fights of all the fights of Ngannou in UFC, he is setting a trend for MMA fighters to venture to boxing where there is a lot of money to be made, Ngannou use the UFC to start his career but its on boxing where he will establish his legacy and will make a lot of money.

He has a good chance against Joshua if only he can take good trainers, Joshua has a better skill than Joshua but his power and how he takes big punches are questionable, if Ngannou can land punches Joshua will be in trouble, if Fury had hard time with Ngannou, Joshua will have to the fight seriously, it's a big humiliation losing a fight to a guy who only had two fights.

Beefs mean nothing, if there's money to be made by both sides, they'll find an agreement pretty soon.
As of now, Ngannou is obviously better off sticking to boxing, he can earn a lot more and it's arguably easier then mma (I could be wrong here). But if he disappoints against Joshua, which is a possibility, then he might have to either retire or go back to MMA for a couple of last fights.
If he at least survives all rounds and lands at least a few good shots, then he'll likely get a chance to fight another boxing match. Re-match against Fury would make a lot of sense, and I think Fury spoke positively about that.

Does anybody know if it's going to be an official boxing fight or another exhibition fight?

Yes and that's why it's very easy for him to and fight Fury, maybe it was also a way to rub it in to Dana and says that he is making more money combined when he was still under the organization of UFC.

So it's a win-win for Francis, in just 2 fights alone more than $20 million already and then he has a good chance to win more if he can win and knockout Joshua here and most likely face the winner of Usyk vs Fury for the biggest fight in boxing. They too has the Saudi's rich oil money willing to disposed hundreds of millions of dollars just to witnessed this great fight.

What do you mean official or exhibition? Its probably ranked or unranked fight. If AJ had a belt, he would not have lost it if he would lose. The same as with Fury fight. Fury wasnt risking anything (except reputation).

Dont think that Ngannou would ever return to UFC. UFC rarely pay a million to a fighter (but fighters get more than a million if we calculate payment+ppv sales+victory bonus+sponsors). Here, from the start he got 10 times more he was earning in UFC. Now, as he has a place in board in PFL, media, fame, he dont really need to fight in mma to earn the same amount he earned in UFC.

This is a sign that he will not return anymore, his performance against Fury that created some controversy as some believe that Fury did not win had already made Ngannou an instant celebrity in boxing. So for sure he will stay here, he might not dominate but in terms of paycheck, he is making like a boxing superstar is making, at an entry level.

This is not bad at all and since Joshua is still one of the best boxers in the heavyweight division, they can promote this fight easily and there will be no problem for their promoters to sell this fight but what I want to see is some trash talking because it's really good to fuel it with some words before the fight. Ngannou already learned his lesson in his last fight with Fury that's why Joshua shouldn't underestimate him because it could be that he will caught by a huge surprise that could end up the fight shorter than we all expected. We already know that Ngannou can actually survive 12-round fights without any problem.

The press conference is going to held on Monday in London according to Eddie Hearn: https://www.tntsports.co.uk/boxing/anthony-joshua-and-francis-ngannou-set-for-saudi-arabia-showdown-eddie-hearn-confirms-it-s-a-done-de_sto9944467/story.shtml

Hopefully they announce some undercard fights then as well. Very strong rumours that Wilder is wanting to avenge his loss fighting against possibly Zhang. I don't think Wilder is done yet but that's not a good fight for him. Zhang is a juggernaut, though if Wilder does win it throws him back in the mix as Zhang is the mandatory challenger for Usyk, though a win or great performance may also get the AJ fight back on track.


It's not an exhibition and neither was the Fury fight. They're officially sanctioned by the WBC. There's just no belts on the line because Francis was unranked, though he is ranked now and will likely move up the ranks with a win over AJ.


Beefs can mean something especially when egos are involved. Dana has pretty much been embarrassed by Ngannou by not only getting these huge deals in both boxing and MMA with the PFL but almost nearly beating Fury. Dana has been pretty childish towards Francis saying things like he was scared to fight Jon Jones which is BS. Dana just tried to low-ball Francis and strong-arm him into an unfavourable contract and Francis had the balls to just walk away and make his own path.  All Dana had to do was to just allow Francis to box outside of his UFC contract and had he done that Ngannou would likely still be with the UFC. Dana has been pretty hypocritical as well saying the UFC don't do gimmick cross-over fights but then offers to make Fury vs Jon Jones. Make up your mind.

Dana can be understood also. If he would allow Francis to have a fight outside UFC, then other fighters will follow Francis and would also try to sit on two chairs at once. As a businessman he can be understood, as he was risking his asset in exchange for what? More fame and media? He could have allowed Ngannou to participate outside UFC only if other boxers would accept a fight under MMA rules and under UFC promotion. That would be fair. He others to earn on Ngannou name, then let him also earn on Fury name for example. That fight between Fury and Jones, he proposed that to happen under UFC flag.

P.S. Dana only allow his most milking cow to have a boxing fight, only because it would hype UFC also. And once he allowed his fighter to participate in other MMA event, but that was made when UFC were at the bottom and required any additional attention from the world.

Sure, but his boxing career could be short-lived if Joshua beats him easily. One of the reason for Fury's poor performance was no available material to analyse Ngannou's style and weaknesses. Joshua's team now has got at least something to work on.
But if Francis somehow manages to get that win, he's almost guaranteed to stay in boxing, and would likely get a fight with a winner of Fury Vs Usyk.


Did he really said that lol? It's funny because that's exactly what he was saying the other way around when Ngannou defeated Stipe and they wanted to set Jon against Francis but couldn't (for whatever reason), Dana was suggesting that Jon is afraid to fight Francis.

And even if Francis decided to retire after his Fury and then Joshua fight, he will still have a lot of money in this pocket. Or if there is a good offer for him in the PFL and not in UFC under Dana, because of their personal beef, he can still make a lot of money.

For now, we should be looking for this fight though, I guess majority will agree that Francis based on his performance against Fury and if he improves, definitely Joshua is not going to be assured of a win here and maybe we will look and see upset as Francis power is scary and if landed of Joshua's chin which is weak, Ngannou will win by a impressive knockout.

It's not about a a fighter vs fighter beef, it's promotion (headed by Dana White) vs their fighter. So there's no agreement in between, and I don't think that Dana will give in to the demands of Francis if we talk about money. Dana is business and we all know that he will have his way one way or another and that's why I do not see Ngannou going back to his franchise.

And as we have seen, he is a natural striker with raw power. And boxing is the perfect fit for that kind of athlete. And besides, money in boxing is big for Heavyweight, specially that they have the back up of one of the richest nation, in Saudi Arabia.

Money is an important factor for fighters, but it seems to me that at some point it’s not just about money. It seems that after the fight between Ngannou and Fury, the boxing world is ready to accept this fighter, and now the important point will be whether Ngannou can defeat his opponents, and it is important that this can be done by knockout, so that there is no doubt about victory.

Joshua is weaker than Fury and Ngannou can beat him. I will say that I have always liked Ngannou as a fighter and I would like to see him win this fight.

Francis has a surprising nice skill for a fighter - he can surprise opponent. He has surprised his last mma opponent with lots of wrestling, when everyone expected striking. He has surprised boxer with good boxing skills, enough to "not to look bad when fighting a champion". Most likely, or even 200% that he will surprise AJ and his team. Mark my words. Even if AJ wins, Francis is going to be different, not a straightforward running train with one loaded punch.


That is why there is always not one, but two corner guys despite cut man in the corner. That is a ridiculous excuse honestly. If they had nothing to analyse, they must have adopted strategy during rounds, that is why they are there.

Lol, but yeah, if that is the excuse on Fury's fight, they whoever trains him, whether his father, it's a failure on their fight to recognized that the likes of Francis Ngannou who has the power, can knock him down in a fight and that's why happen.

They just got lucky that the judges give them that score, otherwise, it will also be a broken fight between him and Usyk as it really derailed their fight like what happen to Wilder losing to Parker. AJ should learn from this and so not be overconfident even if they are the overwhelming favorites against Ngannou.

Even after Ngannou's showing vs Fury the books line him at 4.20, via KO at 5.60 and vs decision at 16.  I think the latter has a lot of value in it.  Ngannou has the cardio to go all through the end in a boxing match as seen vs Fury.  But the question is how does Joshua take a punch from Ngannou?  Will he be able to stand up and soldier on til the end?  I really have no idea.

We all know Ngannou's chin could take a punch and he could prolly take Joshua's powerrr.  :/

There's always a value on it, IMO, he is quite an underrated boxer, and since his record is still 0, I thinkt he odds are just fair. But we aren't line makers, and line makers based their odds on a lot of factor, so if we believe that Ngannou should have win in his previous fight, I think this time he can prove himself if he really win against a boxer that is lower than Fury in terms of ranking.

Personally, I would take a 5.60 via KO, as I think AJ is not as durable as Fury.

We can try to evaluate AJ by watching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhdE4tnPiN4. For sure his chin can hold few good punches, but all those opponent did not his as hard as Ngannou. The biggest question would be tactics of Ngannou imho. If he would start with saving stamina for later rounds, then AJ would hold punches, if Ngannou would spam like Usyk, than series of not-in-full-power strikes will be enough.

Maybe the past fame of Ngannou runs in front of him and forces us to think that he will know each and every opponent. In such weight class, its even enough to jab to KO an opponent. So its isnt right to discuss "would-AJ-stand-or-fall" after a punch. Maybe we overestimate Ngannou, and his past is past now, as boxing is much different from mma fights and his record there.

The money that both players will receive because of this fight is jaw-dropping. Anthony Joshua will receive close to £31m, while Francis Ngannou might get up to £16m. But like you said, this fight is far more than the financial gains. Anthony Joshua wants to fight his way to the top and reclaim his past glory, while Ngannou is desperately seeking an avenue to get to the top.

Joshua is a more experienced fighter and could use it against the new guy on the block. But Francis is heavy and also a good puncher, so I have some doubt if Joshua will be able to withstand him for ten rounds. If Joshue survives a knockout he might end up winning the fight. The fight is a dangerous and unpredictable one but Joshua will be entering the ring with confidence after having a good 2023 where he defeated Jermaine Franklin, Robert Helenius and Otto Wallin. While Francis is motivated by the fact that he had given Tyson Fury one of the fights of his life.   

I think the closest that we might see how Joshua can take a power puncher is obviously against his first defeat, Andy Ruiz. But I think Ngannou has more power that Ruiz and with that, if let's say Francis landed the way he landed on Fury, it might be goodnight for Joshua.

So not sure what bookies is putting him as a big underdog in this fight. But I think it's going to be a field day for gamblers who wanted to bet on the underdog. As we all know that Francis is a live dog and that odds is very enticing and it might cost big money on casinos if Francis is going to pull the biggest upset and score a knockout against Joshua in this fight.

That's exactly what will happen. However, I'm pretty sure that Joshua is aware of that outcome, so he will make sure it will not happen. He suffered knockouts in his career, he cannot take it anymore against a much stronger opponent. Joshua here will just likely play Ngannou, he will not goe toe to toe, instead he will use his quickness while trying to score. And with that, I agree that bookies made the right odds for this game, because Ngannou chance here is to hit Joshua with a clean shot that would result to KO.

After the Fury - Joshua fight, Ngannou became the favorite in this fight based on the members' poll here, but on Fandurl sports book it's the other way around
Ngannou opened as a considerable underdog for this bout with +470 odds at FanDuel Sportsbook, while Joshua is a -550 favorite.
Anthony Joshua Vs. Francis Ngannou Boxing Fight Odds (https://www.forbes.com/betting/boxing/anthony-joshua-francis-ngannou-fight-odds/)

I voted for Joshua to win by decision if it goes the distance but if we're talking about who's going to go down it's Joshua because between the two it is Ngannou who is the hard puncher and Ngannou can take a punch, compared to Joshua who's been down many times in the past, Ngannou chances is to knock Joshua out while Joshua's skill in boxing is better than Ngannou and this will save him.

We already have an idea, Ruiz fight and even in the Usyk fight wherein there were moments that AJ's leg was wobbled because he was hit by Usyk who is not known to be a big puncher but still it has enough to bring AJ's legs to move.


That's the scary part of Francis, he can take punches as well as dish it out. Wish though that he will have the stamina or developed it through 10 rounds so that he will still looks fresh in the championship rounds against AJ if this fight goes to distance.

Ngannou is a real deal. I mean,  he could punch hard and he is strong and could accept punches. The only problem I see here is if AJ have more quickness than Ngannou and AJ will use that against a newbie in boxing. With that, it would result to an easy win for AJ and Ngannou's hype will die.

We don't want to see that and we don't believe that, right? So I guess the poll says a lot about how sports bettors here felt about this fight, we can go big or go home here for Ngannou. GL!

As Joshua has a lot of fight time in the ring, I think he could make the match last longer and go to a decision than go fight toe to toe vs Ngannou which would def by a bad proposition for Joshua.  I might go for Ngannou via dec at 16.  And it'sgonna go higher as the build up to the even intensifies.  Omg it's gonna be a so good...  Fresh off the heels of Ngannou's great performance vs Fury. 

I think 5.60 via KO doesn't have that much value.  I'd rather take it straight at 4.20.  Not a big difference.

5.60 KO for me too, I think if Ngannou will win, it would be by KO. AJ showed some weakness in his previous fights, while AJ are trying to make a strategy on how to defeat Ngannou, I'm sure the camp of Ngannou also understands that and will focus on their own strategy. With heavyweight fights from KO artist, going to judges decision is less likely, so it should be a KO.

Yeah, it might be hard for the judges to give the nod for Ngannou if the fight goes to distance, similar to what we've witnessed in the Fury fight. There are some boxing fans that thought that Fury didn't do enough to win in that fight and that Francis with the strength of his knockdown, could have won that fight.

And here and with AJ questionable chin, chances are, if he hit that one punch to the chin, then maybe we can see a KO win.

So it make sense to go on this route and bet by KO instead of a straight up ML at 4.20. At least Ngannou has control of on he is going to win, instead of letting the judges, that might screw him again.

According to Sport Business Journal the purses are £31 million for Joshua and £16 million for Ngannou.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/boxing/article-12943435/Anthony-Joshua-bank-jaw-dropping-career-payday-Saudi-fight-Francis-Ngannou-former-UFC-star-receive-DOUBLE-controversial-loss-Tyson-Fury.html


Doesn't matter if the UFC is involved with their boxing fights as well. Dana could have had his cake and eaten it too if he just allowed Francis to box. Ngannou was pretty open that he would be happy to do both and give Dana/UFC a cut as a cross promotion. If they can do it for Connor then they can surely do it for Francis too. Dana has shot himself in the foot letting Francis go. Ngannou was one of the biggest stars the UFC had but now he's the biggest PFL star and he hasn't even fought for them yet. Francis doing boxing alongside MMA just brings in more eyes from the boxing world and makes Francis an even bigger star that could transcend the sport. If Francis does well or even beats AJ then he's going to become one of the biggest combat athletes in the world if he isn't already. If he does beat AJ then he'll probably be fighting for belts very soon. The UFC has lost out on all that promo

Exactly what I think will be the plan for Francis. KO Joshua and give the judges no chance to steal this victory for him again. Francis also know what the critics say, he will want to shock and shut them up.

Francis knows this and already has fired a warning shot saying,
'I've heard he doesn't have a chin' (https://www.eurosport.com/boxing/francis-ngannou-fires-warning-shot-to-anthony-joshua-ahead-of-saudi-showdown-i-ve-heard-he-doesn-t-h_sto9950385/story.shtml)

Francis was able to knocked down Fury who is really strong, the chance of him knocking down and Out Anthony Joshua is big. This fight can really be Francis's first win.

As far as I remember, Ngannou was complaining not only on low salary, but basically wanted a freedom of action and asked UFC for full medical insurance. UFC does give some medical insurance, but Francis wanted it to be something like - he break neck, UFC support him fully till pension. We will never know full story of their behind the scene games. Personally, if Francis got 10 millions for fight against  Fury, I dont think that UFC were able to pay him so much for a fight. That is it.

Isnt Ngannou has to pass some opponents first, and get some rating to be able to fight for belts? Now he looks more like a talented guy from the crowd that box on the same level as champions. Now Fury fights with Usyk and all the belts are on the line. There are always obligatory belt applicants. Would boxing organizations really allow those who are in line wait, and let Ngannou out of turn?

I still have an Anthony Joshua signed glove that I bought at auction a while back when he was World Champ. With every loss I think the value of that framed glove goes down. I have no choice but to cheer him on :D

I think Fury could have gone into his fight with Ngannou unprepared, maybe he underestimated him. I think Joshua will win this fight comfortably. He has no choice but to stay 100%  focused in every pre fight training camp and be ready for every fight. If he loses many more his career is over.

He requested a few things, but not all just for himself but the betterment of all UFC fighters. There's a really good article that lays out what happened during his contact dipsute with the UFC and what he got from the PFL https://www.espn.co.uk/mma/story/_/id/37702902/why-francis-ngannou-left-ufc-signed-pfl-contract-deal


Francis seemed to me to be be very reasonable and open to further negotiations but he really needed to be allowed to fight outside the UFC in boxing. Why would Francis sign anything otherwise when he knows he can make more money in one boxing fight than his entire UFC career. Francis stuck to his guns and I'm glad it paid off for him.


Technically, no. You just have to be a top 15 ranked opponent to challenge for a belt and Ngannou is currently ranked 10th by the WBC so theoretically he could challenge for the title, which is crazy considering he's above Hrgovic, Joyce and Dubois. The WBC could choose not to sanction it or make Fury fight another mandatory though. I'm sure people would complain if they gave Ngannou a title shot so early but I think if he can get few wins under his belt then there's no reason why not. AJ is currently ranked at number two so if Francis beats AJ then that says a lot and if Francis can beat the number two then some may argue that makes him the number one contender. The WBC will likely make AJ the mandatory for Fury if he wins against Ngannou but it will be interesting if AJ loses. There's also the chance that the belts get vacated after the Fury/Usyk fight so they don't have to defend them against their chosen mandatories.

According to Fury himself, the poor performance was not to underestimating Francis, but more due to the fact they had no material (footage of any Ngannou's boxing fights) to use to analyse Francis' style. Plus, I think he admitted that he was simply better than anyone expected, which is true.
Joshua is definitely in way more comfortable position in this regard. He knows what to expect and will not underestimate him. Then again, Francis and his team could surprise everyone again and present a completely different style than in the Fury fight.
I too favour Joshua to win, but it won't necessarily be a walk in the park.


How on earth is he ranked that high (or at all). He did do very well, but it was still a loss. Do they award ranking points for style etc?

This was a bit of a lazy excuse from Fury in my opinion. There's plenty of UFC fights for them to watch and given Francis usually just stays on his feet and boxes they should have know what to expect, though Francis did surprise everyone with how much he looked like a proper boxer. If a casual was watching that fight and had no idea who either were if you asked them who was the proper boxer or current heavyweight champ I'm sure most would have picked Francis.


As much as I love Francis and thought he deserved a draw at least, it is ridiculous them ranking him in the top ten after just one fight and a fight that he lost on paper. Sure, rank him after five fights or something but not one. I believe they have a panel of judges that rank opponents but the WBC is notoriously dodgy and they ranked him just for their cut of his fights when they sanction them. Lot's of people call them We Be Corrupt haha. The head of the WBC said this as his justification:


https://talksport.com/sport/1621594/wbc-president-francis-ngannou-ranking-tyson-fury-fight/

Which I guess is probably true but you have to prove that in the ring.

Mauricio Sulaiman also went into the ratings criteria they use in this podcast at the 7:43 mark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wptfSZ-mWs

I guess if you take into considertation his UFC status that that at least gives him a springboard. It's not like he's some random guy from the street, but at the end of the day it's just about the sanctioning fees for the WBC.

https://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/other-sport/boxing/what-time-anthony-joshua-v-31882307

Press conference is going live in London soon at 5pm GMT. Watch it on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oES2Ke6bi80

Looks like Francis was on a film set the other day so I guess we're getting another Hollywood style trailer like we did for the Fury fight:

https://twitter.com/francis_ngannou/status/1746618828518535542
https://www.instagram.com/stories/francisngannou/3280277891973999596/

Francis is now more popular than Jon Bones.
Mike Tyson I think is not going to be Francis' side anymore. Since it's going to be presented again to the richest country Middle East, they would want it quality.

I've checked the odds and to no surprise, AJ is a favourite:
AJ to win: 1.26
Francis to win: 3.85

So even know he's an underdog, according to bookies Ngannou is not without a chance, less than x4 pay out is not a massive one.

I think Francis will approach this fight with much more confidence than in the first fight with Fury, but I'm not sure if that will work in his favour or the opposite - if he gets relaxed too much, he could get punished.
He definitely looked more confident than AJ during the face off. I almost suspect Anthony acts like he's a bit afraid and withdrawn on purpose to get Francis to feel overconfident and make more mistakes.
Link to the face off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbkuzGl-m60

The press conference was pretty lacklustre and uneventful. They didn't even announce any undercard fighters but they announced them after for some reason:

https://www.instagram.com/p/C2ILhu8LhKL/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=fb22a48f-c247-424c-8bad-39e9a7860023
https://www.instagram.com/stories/turkialalshik/3280952149862882476/

Zhilei Zhang v Joseph Parker
    Rey Vargas vs Nick Ball
    Mark Chamberlain vs Gavin Gwynne
    Justis Huni vs Opponent TBC
    Ziyad Almaayouf vs Opponent TBC
    Roman Fury vs Opponent TBC
    Jack McGann vs Opponent TBC

Zhang/Parker is the only one I'm really interested in. I would have said Zhang blitzes Parker but Joseph did very well against Wilder but I'd back Zhang to beat him anyway. The winner of that should get a title shot, but they announced during the press conference that they're wanting to make AJ/Fury next but both fighters probably need to win, or at the very least AJ needs to make it past Ngannou.




I think he's going to be far more dangerous in this fight. The pressure of his first fight is off his shoulders and he knows what he can and can't do now. He's shown he can go the distance with the current heavyweight champion and on paper Tyson should be a tougher fight than AJ. Ngannou said he wasn't using full power against Fury either as he was worried about gassing out early. It's up to you whether you believe him or not but he didn't seem to be swinging as wildly as he usually does in the UFC so now he knows he can go the full 10 rounds I think we'll probably see a lot more power this time.

That's true, but pressure is not always a bad thing. It did work for him pretty nicely in a fight against Fury. Him getting more confident could result in becoming too reckless or overcommitting and getting countered, but hopefully his mma experience will prevent that.
Looking at it from other perspective, he potentially have more in stake right now. The first fight was probably planned as a one off thing, but since he performed surprisingly well, he now could be fast-tracked into being in the top of the top in boxing. But if he gets ridiculed by AJ, then it would be obvious that the first fight was just a fluke and his boxing career could be over.

Another attraction to this fight is the undercard fight between Zhilei Zhang and Joseph Parker who both come from spectacular wins, Zhang against Joyce and Parker against Wilder and this is for the interim WBO heavyweight title.
These two fighters are now on top of the rank because of their wins against their respective opponents and the two are possible contenders for the winner in the Fury - Usyk fight in case the winner of the Joshua - Ngannou can't agree on the terms.
Parker is my favorite fighter to win against Zhang, I am more impressed by how he beat Wilder than Zhang beating Joyce, but he needs to be careful Zhang possesses a very wicked left straight and he has a good lateral movement.

Zhang vs Parker is also very difficult to predict. We've seen that Zhang left hand has that power and Parker has great lateral movement. So it's a question if Zhang can land that power and or Parker uses his movement to make Zhang misses his power shot.

And Zhang is dangerous in the early rounds and so if Parker can weathered the storm early, avoid that power and then uses his jab to not let Zhang set up his left hand, he might win this fight in the judges score card. But if Zhang in 6 rounds hit Parker, it might be an early fight for him. So the key for Parker is to ouboxed Zhang just like what he did against Wilder to stay away from that big left hand. But for sure this is going to be a great and competitive fight.

I think I made the mistake of calling it an undercard when it should be a co-main event, these two boxers are coming from impressive wins on two former champions they should be given the respect they deserve, yes I voted for Parker but it's not a vote that can be considered a unanimous because Zhang is capable it will go down to who wants it most and who can properly implement a good game plan.
I don't think the boxing community will miss this fight It is always a bigger fight when boxers are coming from impressive performances in their last fights
And we have 4 boxers wanting to be on top, I think we can safely say that the heavyweight glory days are back, there were times that boxing fans preferred to watch and support fights coming from lighter divisions than heavyweight fights.

Zhang though is a big surprised to the Heavyweight division, but yes, this division is back again, with top and second tier boxers all has the potential to beat each other and fights are unpredictable and there could be surprises like Ngannou given by boxing fans a great chance to beat Joshua if he can land just one power punches and then we will see Joshua's reaction, it could be flashback for Joshua of the first Ruiz fight.

And then the Chinese big man, Zhang proving his win against Joyce is no fluke. And who ever wins here can crack the top 3-4 in the Heavyweight division and then have a chance to fight for the belt next.

I think there's more on the line for AJ though. Ngannou isn't expected to win, and shouldn't on paper, but if AJ actually loses this fight then that seriously knocks him down the pecking order not to mention embarrasses him. AJ has got himself back on track to soon challenge for the belts again but a loss would be devastating. AJ even proclaimed "Every opponent me and Fury have in common, I've knocked them out" recently, but means nothing if Ngannou flattens him. However, if AJ can knock down or stop him then that puts him in front of Tyson with something he couldn't do. AJ really needs this win to get a one up of Fury and sets the fight up between them nicely.


Parker was impressive but Wilder seemed off to me. I think Zhang will either win by KO or Parker on points, but I think Zhang should get a KO. Joe Joyce got a KO against Parker and Zhang absolutely battered Joyce twice and was the first to do so.

Good analysis, between the two Zhang, is a big hitter, and that was an ugly knockout of Zhang over Joyce, did we all hear how the crowd reacted every time Zhang snapped Joyce's head?

If Zhang can find his range and he can deliver that straight left Parker is in trouble, and we should all remember Joyce beat Parker by a TKO and Zhang beat Joyce twice by stoppage, if parker fights the way he fought Wilder he has a good chance to win on points and if Zhang delivers a performance as he did against Joyce he will win by knockout, so its all about implementation and who wants the to win the most.

If the fight goes the distance, Zhang could lose. He isn't used to a fight that would take more than 3 rounds. As long as Parker could avoid the left and just dance around til he gets the chance, maybe UD. On the other hand, even when we can tell Parker can take huge punches, he wouldn't last in fighting Zhang toe to toe, especially in the first rounds.

Wilder fumbled the bag. He should have been the one fighting Zhang but turned down while shouting AJ ducking him.

Not only can Zhang bang but he can take punches as well. To me he's the real Juggernaut. Joe Joyce does have notoriously bad defence but up until the Zhang fights he just took everything thrown at him and kept moving forward. If Parker performs as good as he did with Wilder he could cause Zhang issues but I think Zhang is too strong so unless Parker can wear him down I think Parker will suffer another KO. Gotta respect him for getting in the ring with Zhang though as it seems a lot of fighters including Wilder and Dubois were offered the fight and turned it down, which I don't blame them.


I'd be surprised if it does go the distance but that's probably the only way Zhang loses. Zhang has pretty much won all his fights by either KO or TKO, though he did lose on points to Hrgović recently but I and most others seem to think he won that.

You're probably right. I didn't really think of what it looks like from AJ's perspective. Losing to Francis could be a big setback for him. Unless they both would give a tremendous fight and the fans would demand a rematch etc then he could get revenge in a rematch and all lived happily ever after...

My first thought is that AJ's loss would be a huge dent in the entire boxing as a sport. It doesn't look great when an outsider comes in and just casually beats up all the top guys. But on second thought, it could be spun as Ngannou being some sort of prodigy, a one-in-a-million natural boxer etc. I'm sure he already brought in a lot of new fans to the sport, as things looked pretty stale without him.

And AJ Vs Fury could still be a possibility if both lost their fights. But that's unlikely to happen.

In almost all of his fights I feel like Ngannou's robbed even though during analysis the other fighter's more powerful, especially during his fight with Fury where I still feel like he should've won that match and one of the very reasons why split decisions shouldn't even be a thing anymore, but I feel like this one's going to be different though. Joshua definitely got his own shit and something to prove for that matter but I feel like he's not gonna fare well in this battle.

Ngannou's a heavy hitter and a tough fighter for that matter, he knocked Fury down of all people and cemented his name in the boxing annals as someone who's capable of packing a punch and taking some to boot. If AJ couldn't figure out a way to kill his momentum and put him down, Ngannou's going to wear the hell out of him and knock him down eventually. This is going to be a battle of attrition so to speak since I feel like both fighters are capable of sending good punches and taking them, it's just a matter of how heavy those punches feel that would really be the clincher.

In any case, another fight to be excited about. Not as hyped as their fight against Tyson but hell I'd take whatever I can at this point just so I can see Ngannou fight.

If we are talking about Ngannou here, he has only 1 fight as a pro-boxer, but I do agree that he might have been robbed against Fury. Maybe everyone is on the bag as they don't want to derail Usyk vs Fury fight as a lot is on the line. But in this fight, if Ngannou is no longer just a hype job, he could really push Joshua to the limit here. Joshua has been mentality broken in Ruiz and Usyk fight. And if by chance Ngannou's hit his mark on Joshua's chin, this fight will end early. And Francis as well show that he had a good gas tank, so if the fight goes to distance, he can still upset Joshua as Anthony's gas tank is suspected as well and in the Usyk second fight, we have seen him getting tired in the championship rounds.

Definitely, he should not be underestimated as he has a power to be a dominant heavyweight fighter. I'm sure Joshua is preparing well to get a victory, due the popularity of Ngannou now, it could be a big boost on Joshua's career if he wins, especially if he could KO Ngannou.


But he is fine now, he came back and start winning again. Joshua would not have a chance if you believe Ngannou is as good as Usyk.
The only legit defeat of Joshua was against Usyk, against Ruiz, he loss on their first encounter but in the rematch he proved himself that he is the better fighter.

Ngannou doesn't have a good gas tank. His mouth was already wide open as early as the second round. But I admire him for knowing how to save it. His style doesn't consume much energy. He's not throwing away useless punches here and there. So even if his tank is already running low, he can still very much throw his strong punch. And considering that Joshua has this problem as well, it's totally fine for Ngannou to have this limit.

If Joshua was at the receiving end of that knockdown blow of Ngannou against Fury, the fight could have ended in a KO.

You don't know what you're talking about when it comes to the power of Ngannou, there's no doubt that he's going to kill everyone that he's punching if he does punch with all of his might. Have you seen the videos where Joe Rogan and Dana White vouched for his strength? That alone should be enough to make you believe that Ngannou will demolish Joshua in this fight, the derail part of that isn't the reason for the loss, it's the corrupt boxing federation that's creating this problem, the deserving don't win and the favorite gets the favors of the judges and Ngannou's no hype job, he can deliver what people are telling others about him.

Here's one of the times that Rogan talked about Ngannou's punching power
Here's the one where Dana talks about the punching power of Ngannou

His mouth was already from round one, so we can't tell if he was really tired starting from round 2. In fact, he knocked Fury down in round 3, that means he still have the strenght to throw power punches. Maybe in the later rounds he got tired as he could not defend well the jabs thrown to him, and IMO, that's the reason why he lose in that fight.



That's for sure, I completely agree with you. Joshua has a weak chin, so I don't think he'll be able to stand up after that huge hit, or if he could stand up againt he would still be finish in the same round if there's still enough time.

I wouldn’t regard the judges’ decision in that fight as fairly fair, but perhaps giving Ngannou the victory would also have been too easy. The Fury did not win this fight is a fact, Ngannou fought with the champion and his victory should have been certain, I really hope that he realizes this and knocks Joshua out.

Joshua sees this fight with Ngannou as a chance for himself to prove that he can return to the top fighters, but for some reason I think that this fight can break him even more, because I think that Ngannou is capable of defeating Joshua.

Although Rogan always has the habit of exaggerating things, I can agree that Ngannou really has to most powerful punch and it's no wonder he knocked down Fury and it wasn't even his full swing. If it was, Fury may not have stood back up again. The Dana speaking right there I think was before Ngannou asked for his freedom to fight in boxing.

Once Ngannou achieves this win,  a lot more fights that Ngannou will face before Fury will ever give him the rematch. The bright side is he will get millions.

It seems Ngannou was already catching his breath in round 3, but then a strong punch is always a strong punch even when one is already breathing heavily. It might not be as swift, but it will definitely remain powerful when it hits. As the fight continued, it was more obvious that Ngannou was running out of air. And with Tyson having the ability to remain quick until the end, the tired Ngannou was easily outscored.


Yes, Ngannou showed some tendency to try ending the fight. He suddenly gets aggressive and throws powerful punches. If this was done to Joshua, the fight would have ended. Tyson is a different fighter. Knocking him down doesn't necessarily give you a big advantage.

Joshua is not like Fury because based on his past fights, he obviously cannot withstand huge power punches like what has landed on Fury and we all know that Ngannou will train to make punches like that land more accurately on his opponent since he already has the power and if he can easily win against Joshua, then they will gonna make a duology against Fury in his next bout unless if fury will gonna lost against Usyk, then it will be Usyk vs Ngannou next time for more money and surely they will get another big sponsor once again.

He also had several wins since then but they had left some doubt because he lacked confidence and looked fearful. By beating Wallin so one-sided it convinced people that he is still a viable contender who could be competitive against the best heavyweights. That's as close to prime Joshua as we have seen in several years. If he can win impressively against an opponent that Fury struggled with then he will become the most obvious candidate to face whoever becomes undisputed champion next month.

This fight is where Francis gets to prove himself and show that the first fight wasn't just a fluke. If what Francis said is true that he wasn't using 100% of his power due to fearing he may have gassed out early then that makes him doubly dangerous now. He knows he can up the pressure and not take it as easy as the first fight and no doubt he's improved in training from his first fight too along with hopefully working on his cardio. I was very impressed with how Ngannou fought like a boxer in the Fury fight but I think he needs to combine that with how he fought in the UFC and just use the power he has and try get an early KO which is pretty much how most of his UFC fights went. As people have said, AJ probably has a weaker chin as well so he needs to capitalise on that, but AJ is on a bit of a winning streak right now and seems to be very confident and got his mojo back but that could also be very easily taken away from him too. AJ will be seeing this fight as a chance to get one over on Fury by proxy and do a better job than he did whilst trying to get a fight with Fury next in the process.


He did go the full ten rounds against the current heavyweight champ of the world though so lets give him credit for that. I'm sure he's been working on his cardio too but maybe Francis will try get an early KO this time so he doesn't need to go the distance but if he can do it against Fury I think he can do it against AJ as well.

Maybe there's some truth to that, but he'll have to pace himself anyway. With his >123kg of pure muscles, it won't be easy to stay oxygenated for a full 10 rounds.
I wonder if he'll try to cut more weight for this one. In the fight against Fury, he was the lighter one, but now he'll be over 10kg heavier than Joshua so it would make some sense to drop the weight a little bit to improve his cardio. He'll still have more than enough KO power.


100% agree. His best bet is to put the pressure on. Boxing gloves might be 2x larger than UFC ones, but for a guy this size, it won't make that big of a difference.
He knows how to counterstrike and how to throw combos other than the one-two, so hopefully we'll see some of that.
Francis is slowly approaching retirement age and doesn't have any time to waste + he's got a lot to win, so I hope he won't be holding back and just trying to survive.

I dunno. I think he should keep his size and just work on cardio, but I'm neither an expert or a trainer haha. One thing he's got is his size and AJ is also very big, so I think he should try to out-muscle him and use his strength and weight to his advantage to try weigh AJ down. This is what Fury usually tries to do to exhaust his opponents but he couldn't do that to Francis as he was just too big and heavy so this is now an advantage for Francis. Like against Fury I don't think Francis can outbox his opponent but as we have seen he can certainly floor his opponent and I think that's what he needs to try do early against AJ so he doesn't get outboxed or worn down over the rounds.


Francis should have improved a lot since the Fury fight. Months of extra training and they at least now know his limits and what sort of gas-tank he has so they can work on his 'weaknesses' if any. I think Francis has got at least a few years left in him yet at 37 and could even be in his peak shape right now so I wouldn't worry too much about age right now. He could easily get in two or maybe three fights a year up until he's 40. Usyk is also the same age and Zhang is even older at 40 and is having the peak performance of his career right now.

Just remember who is going to be in his corner again, the legend Mike Tyson.
With him by his side Ngannou is going to improve a lot, he is going to learn few more boxing tricks, and I think Joshua has much more to lose in this fight than he does.
I just hope refs wont ruin the fight again with some weird decisions just because he is coming with mma background.

https://images2.imgbox.com/30/87/XfrJYAKO_o.jpg

Mike Tyson it is, he is very confident with his fighter and I know they'll do better this time. Just look at this, last time he fought a champion, now against AJ which is a big downgrade, so despite not having the experience in boxing like AJ does, I think he is still very dangerous.

Ngannou learned a lot from his lose to Fury (although fans didn't agree on a loss) so for sure we will see a different Ngannou here, a fighter that will be more aggressive and will know how to conserve his energy well.

And the refs? don't worry about that as this fight will end up in KO. As to the winner, not sure who will win between the two.

Mike Tyson is a boxer with experience, he is not a coach. What can he teach Ngannou despite his favourite peak-a-boo? Sure he can give advices, but they are completely different boxers. I doubt that tactics and style Tyson coaches put in his head, will work same with a boxer with different height and reach.

As to "ruin fight again" - do you Ngannou won that fight against Fury? Maybe due to that knockdown? Knockdown only turns round from 10-9 to 10-8. That knockdown in third round is scored 10-8 in scorecard. Everything is fair.

He was with him during Ngannou's fight with Fury, and I think he is a big factor on that success although he wasn't the one coaching it. I'm not sure what his role is but most likely he is a trainor and gives Ngannou a fighting style that he used during his prime as a boxer, and since Tyson is still active in boxing although not as a fighter, we can assume that he continues to develop his knowledge and that's his value to Ngannou's camp.


That was a controversial fight. Maybe the really lose but nobody expected the fight would be that close. And Fury is not AJ, Fury is way better, so maybe we will see an even chances here, or Ngannou could make his first win in boxing via KO.

I'm almost sure that Ngannou will act more aggressively in the fight with AJ in order to knock him out. Perhaps Ngannou did not force the end of the fight with Fury because he was confident of his victory, or perhaps he was just tired.

Anyway, I expect to see a completely different Ngannou in this fight. But here the most important thing is not to forget that Joshua also has a very good punch, and in the desire to knock him out, he also need to remember about defense. The fact that Tyson helps Ngannou is good in any case, even if he does not have much experience as a coach, but he has had a lot of fights in the ring and he knows how to win, this is an important quality for every fighter, such support is worth a lot.

Not every coach is a boxer, not every boxer is a coach. In a fight boxer shows his own skills and does what coach suggests him to do. Not saying that this is 50% boxer skill + 50% coach experience, ratio is different, but it isnt 100% in general. Tyson would have given only his experience to Ngannou, not his and his coach experience. If boxers were so specialists in everything, then there were no need for a coach at all. I still believe Tyson was more a media person in Ngannou corner, than a real help. Imho even without Tyson in Ngannou corner, Ngannou would have achieved the same result. In fact, during the fight, Mike Tyson was not even in Ngannou corner. He could have shouted only some advices from the crowd.

Just to give an update on the poll, many of us believe that Ngannou to win it should be knockout, and if the fight goes the distance Joshua could take the fight by decision, there's a big possibility that this scenario can happen, between the two Ngannou is the heavy hitter and the one that can take a punch, if Ngannou hit that chin it could be another Andy Ruiz scenario where Joshua loses his momentum and eventually lose by stoppage, and if the fight goes the distance there's a possibility that Joshua could win by the decision because he knows how to score points on crucial rounds, so Ngannou should take the early rounds and try to catch him and knock him out if the fight drags on Joshua can take the fight by decision.

Anthony Joshua by KO   - 2 (8.3%)
Anthony Joshua by decision   - 6 (25%)
Francis Ngannou by KO   - 14 (58.3%)
Francis Ngannou by decision   - 2 (8.3%)
Draw   - 0 (0%)
Total Voters: 24

Yes, that pretty much sums-up what the poll and what the comments are. Francis being a hard hitter, should take AJ early and try to score a knockout or knockdown. And AJ being a soft-chin, should practice on getting away from that power right of Ngannou and in return, he should used his boxing skills more. However, it could also be a battle of who has more stamina and gas tank as both are very big and carry a lot of muscle mass and it could be tiring to go for a 12 round fight.

But then, for bettors, seeing Francis Ngannou as a huge underdog, for sure they gonna love it as Francis shows that he can be a live dog here.

I'm not sure what you mean that I don't know about the power of Ngannou because I never criticized it. I never question it if you have to read my post. So just read what I said, No need to post that link about his power, because we have seen it against Fury. My question is about his stamina and gas tank as he is not used to fight this long specially the format is very different from what he used to. Derailing with the help of the judges is the same as corruption as they judges could be in the payroll though, just like the head of those governing bodies. So it trickle down to everyone, maybe the referee is also included on that. So if you believed that Francis can beat Joshua here then by all means beat huge amount of money in him. It might be your biggest win.

I agree that judging the whole fight and fixating on one knockdown is not the right approach, as this doesn't mean a thing. But we can't ignore the fact that it was a split decision, meaning one of the 3 professional judges saw Ngannou as the winner. I don't share that view and think Fury was a better fighter overall, but you can't blame people for siding with Francis.
Whenever there's a split decision and a fight is close, there will be controversies. And that's a good thing, it opens the door for potential, exciting rematches.

Joshua is going to win this match, Joshua has the required experience to win this game. Let Ngannou not think that his performance against Fury is going to earn him victory over Joshua who is obsessed with coming back to the top and reclaim his belts. It's going to be a good fight no doubt about that, but I expect Joshua to knock him out.

I think most of us here think that Joshua will win, just like when Ngannou faced Fury, people thought that he has no chance but he surprise the boxing world. Now, depsite that almost an upset win by Ngannou, bookmakers are still making him as a heavy underdog, so it's up to us now to evaluete if we really believe that Ngannou really has a chance to upset Joshua on their fight.

A win for Ngannou will give him an opportunity to challenge a champion, while for AJ, he'll be back to square one again.

Though on paper this looks very predictable, but we never know what will happen in the actual fight, and since AJ is has some weakness too as evidence on his multiple losses, Ngannou might be able to exploit that.

You'll always get a surprise from a hard hitter, they only need one big punch to change the course of the fight, and Ngannou always has a chance to beat Joshua, although they both possess the power, it's the one who can take it that will win the fight, Ngannou was never been knockdown by a punch and he can take big punches, in fact in this fight he can gamble and go all out and take shots so he can deliver his shots.

That's what happened in their three losses of Joshua, his opponents did not respect his power and they knew where to hit Joshua and frustrate him, if Ngannou had done the same, Joshua would in trouble.

I hope Ngannou can surprise the world just like he did against Fury, just imagine Ngannou winning and capturing all the heavyweight title that will be for the record an amateur winning the undisputed titles, that will be boxing biggest shocker.

I think that's going to be a hell of a fight because both of them have the power required to knock each other down, but the major issue I think Anthony Joshua will have is he is fighting someone that is trying to prove a point, and it will even be more difficult for AJ because this guy Ngannou will be fighting like it's his last opportunity, so being an underdog doesn't change anything, since he is physical enough to fight Anthony Joshua toe too toe but the fight can go either side, because both men are strong.

the result of the poll says a number of us here want Francis to win. since i also want a rematch of Francis and Fury, i want Francis to win.
Francis is already a legend in both boxing and MMA sports so he is as experienced as AJ in fighting but because AJ is much more graceful than Fury, this fight could be tougher than him with Fury.

i think if Francis loses this fight, he may be concentrating more on PFL.

That's an obvious result, we like the hype Francis brought to the boxing world particularly in the heavyweight division. So a win here would proved that he is for real as he beat a real boxer, not an ordinary boxer as AJ was once a champion. Though the odds says otherwise, we still love to see Francis winning this big fight.


Francis just need to win here, he has to focus on his fight and eventually he'll get the rematch he like. Last time he earned $10 million as reported, but in a rematch, I guess he'll be making more money, or getting a bigger share of the slice.

Well that's what everyone said about the Fury fight and Tyson was left pretty red-faced and embarrassed after that.


Come on now. AJ might be the favourite but a KO? He would be the first person to do so. If AJ is to win it's probably going to be on points like Fury. Francis might as well be made out of concrete.


Depends how he loses it. He lost to Fury but he's still clearly in demand. If Ngannou loses but only on points then that still adds to Francis' stock in my opinion as he's going the distance with some of the biggest and best boxers on the planet not to mention current and former world champs. Francis will continue to take these big money fights for as long as he can but I'm sure he will also start to fight in the PFL and probably is contractually obliged to do so anyway.

Little correction. Majority "dont want Francis to win", but see him as a winner. That is two different things. I have voted that he will knockout AJ, but I dont want him to win. If Francis starts winning, it will mean that anyone from other sports can switch to boxing and win champions or top of the top fighters. That is wrong. Why spend time training and killing yourself in gym entire life , when some guy from the street can come and have same results as you do within few years.

AJ started his career late, at age of 18, in 2007. Got Olympic gold, some other gold national medals, was a professional boxing champion. And on the other part of scales we have Francis, who has spend part of his life working in a sand quarry, spend other part training MMA (this isnt pure boxing, this is only limited arsenal). If Ngannou wins, it will depreciate the value of Olympic gold medal as minimum.

You can't consider a person a champion because he spent his whole life in the training, and then loses to a guy who spent half his life working in a sand quarry. It’s not Ngannou’s fault that he couldn’t afford to live in abundance and train carefree, but he was able to overcome it all and enter big boxing.

It’s not easy to get a champion to agree to fight you, not everyone can send Fury to the floor. And I would like Ngannou to beat Joshua, because if, as you say, a guy who has worked in a sand quarry half his life can beat a gold medal champion, then what kind of champion is he?

Like you have said, it is not easy to become a champion, more hard to become an Olympic champion. But when a guy from other sports comes and beats you, then what kind of champion you are, or are boxing champions really that good?

I bet you can swim. If you beat Michael Phelps suddenly, wont it mean that the effort and time professional athletes spent on becoming a champion is worthless, or their records are fake?  It is not about being able to afford to train like AJ instead of throwing sand and etc. It is about anyone can beat the best. If anyone can do it, wont it mean that that "best" if fake?

I think the discussion have gone too far. We can just simplify this. Not everyone from UFC can become a pro boxer and beat the champion. Ngannou hasn't even proven it yet, and he only became popular because he gave Fury a good fight and was able to knock the champion down. So the hype for him to win is high although bookmakers doesn't believe it will happen as we can obviously see that he is the heavy underdog. However, as the public keeps hyping his name, we might see a slight changes of the odds in the long run, before the fight.

Right now, Ngannou all have is hyped, but the moment he step up in the ring and beat AJ, that's a different story as he beat a champion calibeer boxer, and most likely he could get a rematch against Fury on a championship fight, if Fury will remain as champion after his fight with Usyk.

MMA has it all from boxing and jujitsu to wrestling. if anyone has to qualify to fight either in boxing or wrestling the guys from UFC can do it all. this is why they tried crossing and so many of them including the most popular such as Connor and Diaz. but Francis is just the exception of all since he really made it to the field of boxing, he didn't cross but stayed and even ranked on WBC.

why i want Francis to win is because of his life story. a poor boy from a poor country Cameroon who made it to the top. that's got to be the most inspiring story for the people in that country. if Nigerians can make it, they too can do it.

That is the point. MMA has only part from boxing. Defence is different. Body position is different. Footwork is different. If in MMA they would try to walk behind opponents front leg like basics in boxing, then it would be an easy target for single leg take down. If they would lean and clinch in MMA like in boxing, then it will be more easier to take opponent down. It is like checkers and chess. Same board but two completely different games. That is why it is strange that the guy who played “checkers” all the time, would beat the guy who is worlds champ in “chess”.

Good points, but in this analogy, Ngannou would be more of a chess player and Fury would be a checkers guy (as MMA has more elements than boxing).
And, all of a sudden, a chess master beating a checkers master doesn't sound so incredible.

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In other news, the betting payout rates for Ngannou are dropping, meaning bookies start giving him more chances of winning, or this is just a result of too many people betting on Francis (kind of in line with the results of the poll in this topic).

In MMA it is necessary to train in various aspects of combat that are not necessary in boxing. Because of this, an MMA fighter will focus on a variety of skills but is not necessarily concerned with having the best boxing, or muay thai, or jiu jitsu skillset. Focusing exclusively on one would neglect your other skillsets. Fury and Joshua have only trained in boxing their entire lives so therefore their skills are more refined for this discipline compared to Ngannou.

Seriously? Are these individuals composed of mma fans and voters with little boxing knowledge? Anyhow, only wager small sums or do not wager at all in this match because you will see the absolute annihilation of Ngannou.

Ngannou is simply riding his fame in light of his contested loss to Fury. But in my opinion, he cannot win a boxing match even at the degree of Joshua which is inferior compared to Fury. Joshua will have great preparations because in his mentality he can demonstrate that he can be better than Fury.

That's your opinion though, just like other opinion, it has to be respected. AJ has became a champion, loss and now trying to be back at the top again, he certainly is the favored to win here for that reason. Ngannou on the other and was popular due to his fight with Fury, he lose but people though he won, that's just it, he has never proven it yet so he is not likely to win, and bookies would agree with that, however, they are not right all the time, so they could also be wrong this time.

What I'm waiting to see here is on how AJ would beat Ngannou who is a monster on the ring, he might not have the kind of quickness or IQ on boxing champions, but boy, he got some power that when he would able to knockout his opponent, I don't know if AJ would recover.

Nope, Ngannou is still a checkers guy, because all those skill he learn for MMA, not all of them are striking :D He is like a bit of a chess, a bit of a checkers, a bit of a backgammon, a bit of a scrabble guy :D Where AJ is a pure chess player. And his coach is the guy who has been doing F2-F4 most of his time. How you gonna beat a chess grandmaster with all that combo? Sound impossible on a paper. But IRL that guy manage to beat chess grandmasters. And that is why such games, victories and results cast shadow on chess in general.

I hope after such complicated discription, my vision of Ngannou in boxing and vs boxers is clear :D

Bookies make him the underdog just like his fight with Fury. of course, they will do that as AJ is a pro and has been fighting in boxing for years and has won a championship while Ngannou just recently came on the picture after a stellar performance against Fury, but this time it's either he lose or win convincingly. His hype will be over as soon as he got 2 L in his boxing record and AJ's journey towards the championship fight will continue.



I'm pretty sure that AJ is well aware of Ngannou's power, and he's been down many times, he knew the feeling, so he'll sure learn from his mistakes and come out more mature and take it easy to beat Ngannou.

I completely disagree, if you are good enough to beat Michael Phelps, then you will definitely go and show what you can and they will take you to the team, and you will become a champion.

It’s the same in boxing, if you think that you are stronger than Joshua or Fury, then you will go to boxing, defeat everyone and reach these guys, if you defeat them too, then no one will be able to say that you are not a real champion. It doesn’t matter if you are an Olympic champion in the past, or if you are the current champion now, if you are stronger, then you have the right to be called a champion. But for this you must go through the path that Joshua, Fury or Ngannou went through, each had their own, but each of them deserves to be a champion.

That is why boxing has rank system, ratings and etc. Otherwise any good unknown boxer would come, defeat everyone and sponsors gonna lose their “champion is promoting us” thing. It is not enough to simply be good. You must be good and be high in rank. So far Ngannou is unranked. Btw, Ngannou does not deserve to be a champion.  Simply because he has skipped all that “path to face champion”. He did not fight other contenders. And it is to late for him to do that.

I think it just carry his reputation from MMA/UFC and that's why he was able to skipped all the necessaries "path to the champion", as he is a champion on the other discipline. And boxing bodies approved of his fight to Tyson Fury, so he maybe unranked for now, but with his experienced on a similar sports, he was given that green life to be a professional boxer.

Besides, he was a star himself, could generated and put people to buy tickets and live gates and it was evident with this fight with Tyson Fury. And now he has been given this opportunity to fight Joshua and who knows, he could pull a upset here.

Lets imagine a situation. You are an employee in a large company. You have worked your career from "bring this, help there guy", through simple bookkeeper to head of department. Now you are about to become CFO. But, all of a sudden appears a guy, who has worked behind cashdesk at the shop and tell you to wait. Because "he has also worked with money". Would it be fair?

Anyway, if Ngannou wins, I would be disappointed with AJ. If after the fight Ngannou gets some privileges, all of a sudden becomes an obligatory title contender, I would be disappointed with boxing federation.

Well we have been disappointed with boxing federations for many years, and even to promoters who didn't bring the fight that we want as boxing fans, due to politics, corruption and other factors. So this is no exception, they have given Francis some privileges and it's obvious because of the money involved, and all this federation and promoters who will get those chunk of money. Saudi is now becoming the haven of boxing, with them having billions at their disposal. And promoters are drooling over it that rivals Frank Warren and Eddie Hearn has set aside their war and politics and have been staging huge money fight in the Middle East. Just like what we are going to witness, Saudi wanted to held this fight, Ngannou's name is now on top of the HW division and so this federation and promoters will have to deliver it.

Ngannou left a good impression against Fury, who is considered the best heavyweight in the world. Joshua isn't as good as Fury and has a glass chin so they are basing their predictions on simple logic. What isn't being considered is that going into his fight with Fury, Ngannou had never boxed before so we didn't know his strengths and weaknesses. Now that Ngannou has some experience, Joshua has some footage to study and he also knows what mistakes Fury made in his preparation, or lack thereof.

I am not so confident that Ngannou gets annihilated. Most people thought the same thing about Andy Ruiz. Ruiz shocked the world and AJ has never really been the same since. I think the odds are about where they should be. AJ is rightfully favored but at heavyweight nothing is guaranteed, especially when your opponent has the kind of power that Ngannou possesses.

We will soon find out who is the best heavyweight in the world. Ngannou stunned the world when he showed he could hold his ground and gave Fury a night to remember. However, results like that are uncommon and only occur a handful of times.

Ngannou will also examine his previous match and learn from his mistakes. However, I simply do not think it is enough, in this next match, he is not taken lightly. Joshua improved after several wins and perhaps back to his old condition. Joshua will go out there and fire his bombs with the goal of annihilating Ngannou. Ngannou, in my opinion, is unable to keep up. But if it is a terrified Joshua, Ngannou gets an opportunity to break that chin once more.

The question is, did Fury trained hard on their fight? If Fury didn't took the fight seriously, then Ngannou could not make it as a basis for his adjustment as simply what he faced was not the real Tyson Fury. Here, this fight, his opponent AJ will trained as usual so Ngannou needs to have a big improvement as well. There's a reason why he loss on his last fight, people should stop hyping up his suppose victory because by record it didn't happen.

He now have a chance to proved to the world if he is really a legit star in boxing, so it's important to beat AJ, otherwise, people will think that he should go back to where he belonged, where he is good at.

That was just an assumption from random people, but since Fury didn't confirm that, we should assume that Fury did the right training before the fight although in the trailer he was just more on eating. Fury, always came prepared, that's why he is still undefeated until now, and honestly, in his recent fights, I haven't seen any fighter that he had a hard time beating. It's easy for him because he is smart, and I even doubt Usyk could give him a problem in their unification fight.

AJ vs Ngannou is definitely gonna attract the crowd, there's no question about that, the only question is if Ngannou can stand against AJ who has a high KO rate than Fury. 24 KO of 27 fights, that's high.

Fury did train and it's been on the videos shown while he was sparring with someone. He knows it's a real fight and he knows Ngannou has the hardest punch in MMA I don't think he will just disregard what Ngannou can do and will not prepare for it. Not preparing for Usyk fight will be Fury's end. Usyk is a much better fighter than Fury, everyone could see that on their records. Fury hasn't unified a belt.

If Mike Tyson is not on the side of Ngannou this time, probably because Mike Tyson had already taught him all he could.

He was properly prepared for the fight according to himself and people who know him (including Tom Aspinall). He had a perfect excuse to explain his below-the-expectations performance of "I guess I underestimated him a bit and didn't train as hard as I should" - but he never went with it and was honest.


I don't think there's any risk of Fury underestimating Usyk and neglecting preparations. That being said, he mentioned in one of the interviews (https://youtu.be/du94sRofifU?si=w95q02THJKejv7Pm&t=212) that he'll only train for 4-5 weeks before the fight, as opposed to 12 weeks he spent on preparing for Ngannou or Wilder. Not sure if he was serious though.

It could be just an excuse though. But good for him because he was able to win the fight, so regardless, that doesn't make him a bad fighter since Ngannou  trained hard and wants to win also. Now, against Usyk, he can't say that he will be undertrained because this is a serious matter, it's an undisputed fight and everything is at stake here, including his popularity.

He was just lucky that the judges was in his favor on that fight. Everyone is saying that he will dominate and it will not go to distance. But there are boxing pundits who says that he almost lost that fight and it almost cost him a big payday against Usyk.

---

And so Francis Ngannou will have, I will say a second chance, this time it's better for him as Joshua doesn't have the chin and if that raw power of Francis touches that glass chin of Anthony, so it won't be a easy fight for him.

For Francis, he could be more familiar with boxing right now, and will be full of confidence based on his last performance against Tyson Fury.

You call that lucky if you are one of the many who believed that Fury loss on that fight But it's hard to just follow the speculation like that as there's an official scorecard for a reason. Boxing maybe corrupt, like the judges are, however, we are only guided with the official result, and it's final, so we have to respect that.

---

I'm hoping to see that from him as he gained good experience on his first fight, he should be able to make the right adjustment in this fight although it's a different opponet. And yeah, it's noted that AJ as a soft chin, that should be the target of Ngannou, and I'm sure if AJ fall he will not be able to recover.

It could still be said that Ngannou actually made his Boxing debut yesterday afternoon, but he has potential and Ngannou has managed to have quite good hype as newcomer to the world of Boxing.
It just that previously Ngannou was great fighter in the UFC and Ngannou had also managed to win the title for clear weight there, now Ngannou just needs to focus on his next fight against Anthony Joshua.
I still believe that Ngannou will be able to become champion and he will gain his ranking as time goes by, in his first debut, if he really succeeds in knocking out Fury then it is clear that Ngannou can be the first boxer to beat him.
Now Ngannou will start again and he will start from the start to be able to have ranking and be challenger for every weight class, it is possible that Ngannou can win various titles like Fury and Usyk.

Less than a month to go now. AJ and Francis had their first face-to-face discussion recently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbc_KOoCu2A


Francis is ranked at Number 10 by the WBC, though I don't believe he should be. The WBC's reasoning was that he's already got a leg-up and proved himself through fighting in the UFC and shown he can go toe-to-toe with the current heavyweight champion of the world so therefore he deserves to be ranked. I mean, sure, maybe put him in the top 50 or something but not straight into the top 10. That's just silly but there's a reason many call the WBC "We Be Corrupt" and they obviously want their sanctioning fees. It will be interesting to see how long before he is challenging for the WBC belt though. Now he's in the top 10 he can actually fight for it, but fighting Fury again with the belt on the line would be a bit silly in my opinion. I would love for Francis to win it at some point but he needs to earn that right and not have it handed to him after a few fights. Of course, Fury might lose his belts soon but it seems Saudi was wanting Francis to fight the winner of Fury/Usyk so the belt could be on the line then, though I don't think it should be right now.

If Ngannou was to beat AJ, then I wouldn't mind him fighting with a winner of Fury Vs Usyk. Sure, it will probably be a record speed to become an undisputed champion in only 3 fights, and giving a novice such a chance sounds like a joke at first. But not giving him such an opportunity, after almost beating Tyson in his very first boxing fight and after defeating Tony, would make the whole sport look bad.
It's not a good look when a newcomer manhandles all the top stars and boxing organisations pretending nothing is happening making him build his record from scratch. Given his age, he would never be able to get a title fight the "normal" way.
AJ fight will confirm if Ngannou belongs in the top 10 or was his first fight just a fluke.

i think Francis could knock either Usyk or Fury so he if wins his fight against AJ and is given a shot again i think he will be able to topple either. he was fighting a pro in his first debut but he managed to avoid getting hit hard but knocked down the champ. i'm sure if Francis is still in UFC, he'd be the main event in the historical UFC 300.

i am seeing AJ get wrecked by Fancis.  even with that simple fight plan he had with Fury will already work with AJ. all he needs is to land big shots.

Most likely it will be the case, if ever he will beat AJ, his hype will soar to a new level and boxing fans are going to clamor for Francis to fight the winner of Fury vs Usyk. Francis chances is to hit AJ with his power, just like what he did on his UFC days, that power though, once it touches anyone, it's night-night for them.

Francis though is still 4:1 underdog as per crypto based sport bookies. Could they be setting us for a trap here or odd makers still think that Francis is no anomaly or what he got is just his power and that's it. While Joshua on the other hand, pro-boxer, but they don't think that Francis can upset AJ in this fight and making him a huge underdog.

I think so too. Beating AJ would elevate Francis to a whole new level. Fury has already expressed interest in a rematch with Francis even before his fight against AJ was announced. And Ngannou Vs either Fury or Usyk would then be by far the most profitable option, which makes it the most likely one to happen.


These are actually pretty good odds for Francis. Many professional boxers don't get such odds when fighting the top guys. Ruiz was over 12:1 underdog in his first fight with AJ and still managed to win.


UFC300 will take place on 13th April, so shortly after the Ngannou Vs AJ fight and the main card for that is already completed and was recently announced.
I don't expect Ngannou to ever return to the UFC. Maybe if he loses badly to AJ and it's clear that he has no place in boxing, but even then, he might just retire or go to a different MMA organisation.

https://i.postimg.cc/cJkbcgMt/image.png https://i.postimg.cc/X7K1zDkb/image.png

These are exact expressions on my face when I read from your post that he is now ranked 10 in WBC... I mean, it is stupidly unfair towards guys who were on top10 and below positions. Now with a single fight, he has moved them down, while they were crawling there for years. It is even more stupid when unranked guy fought champion, and now 10th place guy fights a guy who supposed to be Nr.1 contender for a belt. What now, if he beats AJ, he fights for the belt again?

^ I guess it just shows how corrupt WBC as a organizations, they will give all the favor to the any fighter that is the current hype on their body. Canelo has his way with them, not fighting his mandatory and choosing any fighter that he wants to fight without any repercussions.

So same here, for sure if Ngannou beats AJ he will be the poster boy of WBC and then fight the winner of Fury vs Usyk.

But if can only last as long as Francis won, specially in a spectacular manner against Joshua.

Anthony Joshua is great boxer but I think the king of ko Francis will beat him

Very possible but things can get complicated with mandatory title defences. I'm not sure about other organisations but IBF has hinted in the past that the winner of Usyk Vs Fury will have to face Filip Hrgovic immediately after, so no fights in between (including possible rematch).
Whether or not they'll stick to it and actually vacate the title if Usyk/Fury refuse to fight Hrgovic is a mystery. But I think that if  the money is right both of them wouldn't mind dropping the IBF title and maybe try to win it back in their own preferred time.

It is bad that boxing is way more complicated than UFC. Yes my friend ? :D That UFC champs dont fight with other promotion champs :D We have a slightly similar situation. Fighters from other promotion or even other sports move to UFC and instantly get rather high position in rating. Chandler that moved from Bellator to UFC entered title race. Pereira who has moved from kickboxing to MMA very quickly got a title fight. The difference is that when they move, they at least have some fights till they enter rating. Not like 1 fight only and instantly among top10.

Now this is not a pressing issue for them, all attention is focused on the fight, which Fury is trying to push back by any means, the Gypsy King is cunning.

In the meantime, things have calmed down a bit around AJ's fight with Ngannou, and this is understandable, there was not very much interest in him initially, and now the hype with the appearance of Ngannou is also trying to get Emelianenko, who also wants to fight him. It seems that Ngannou has become a popular opponent that everyone wants to fight, and something tells me that it’s all about money.

Tyson Fury was a significant factor in his success. Due to their controversial fight, he is now getting big opportunities that long-time boxers work hard to secure, but Ngannou easily attains. He is also fighting a former champion now, considering AJ was a champ before. Winning here might open up more opportunities for him, and that means more financial gains. He's not going back to where he started since he is becoming a star in boxing already, if he is not considered a star yet.

Many have noticed this too like Pereira getting the title shot with just a few fights in UFC and it's not just Alex. Dana also favors Dagestanis in UFC.

WBC always involves itself in bringing some fighters to disrupt the order, I think because if they don't do this, those top fighters will just be waiting til the champ gets old and rusty. They bring Francis Ngannou because they want to see if a new breed can force these top fighters to fight each other. So this AJ vs Ngannou is happening.

But this could be the new normal soon, the Jake Paul shitshow started it.

We need to understand that Ngannou has generational talent and he is also in the heavyweight division which makes him unique he gives Fury a fight he could never forget because the judges saved his record on that fight. Between him and Joshua, he is stronger and this is an easy fight for Ngannou because he is eager to win in boxing he was not satisfied with the judge's decisions in his last fight which makes this fight even more interesting because he trained well to be able to secure the win and continue his popularity in the boxing industry especially in the middle east.

Anthony Joshua Is putting a lot of effort into his preparation to fight Ngannou, so you can never be sure how the fight will turn out. He is aware of what is ahead of him when he agrees to take on Ngannou on March 9th, and he seems well-prepared.

I see a video of Anthony Joshua's most recent training. His massive build physique gives the impression that he could withstand Ngannou's pushes throughout the entire boxing match.

It's going to be a tough fight for both parties and the winner of it would be celebrated and made themselves more recognized and respected in the World Boxing Federation(WBF).

I'd love Francis to challenge for the belts eventually - assuming he actually starts officially beating people - but you really can't give him a title shot for his third fight. If Fury losses the belts I'm sure he will rematch Fury next, but I can't see Usyk fighting Francis and maybe Usyk will just vacate and/or retire the belts if he wins them.


I'm sticking to the same thing I said for the Fury/Ngannou fight: I think either Francis gets a KO or AJ outboxes him and tires him out.


I suspect Francis will have a MMA/PFL fight next, but not sure he would fight for a belt in boxing next, assuming he wins. He could rematch AJ or Fury (depending on his outcome), or maybe fight one of the mandatories that Fury/Usyk have to try prove himself and get himself on the ladder to eventually fight for a belt, but he needs to earn that right.


It's all sanctioning bodies really. All they care about is their fees so it's in their interest to rank fighters so they can collect the sanctioning fees. They could have still put him in the top 50 or something without giving him a top ten.

But you must also accept, there are large number of talented heavyweights, that are amateur boxers, do boxing only for themselves and did not aim to become professional boxers. Or are only low ranked and cant get high ranked opponents, because such guys like Ngannou came and in the line, and force them to wait for another 6 months before they can have a fight against highly ranked guy. Some dont have promotors. I am more than sure there are a lot of unknown boxers, who are better and stronger than Ngannou. But nobody knows them, and will never found out them, because there guys who pause their career.

How I see Ngannou. Kitchen, line of guys to get feeded. Everyone stand in a queue. Ngannou enters, goes to the start of the line and say "I am next", plus some powerful guy says "yes, he is next to eat". Most of the guys in line keep silent, because if they talk, they will get kicked. Is that fair? No.

Not really sure what you mean by generational talent, but obviously he was gifted with that huge power that can knock everyone out, as he proved it in the case against Tyson Fury wherein he scored a knock down.

He wasn't able to sustain it though in the fight, he might get tired as it is a full 10 rounds and I think that will be one of AJ's strategy here. Avoid that power of Francis and have him tired in the championship rounds and AJ taking over and winning in the judges scorecard.

That should be the strategy they need to employ since AJ can't afford to be careless and try to go toe to toe. It's not surprising for Fury to stand up after getting knocked down, but for AJ, he doesn't have that kind of reputation, so it's too risky for him. Ngannou, who is not a natural boxer, might struggle as the rounds get longer. We saw that in his first fight where he didn't throw a lot of punches, and Fury took advantage of that by throwing a lot of jabs.

The poll is very interesting as of now here is the result of the poll

Anthony Joshua by KO   - 4 (14.8%)
Anthony Joshua by decision   - 6 (22.2%)
Francis Ngannou by KO   - 15 (55.6%)
Francis Ngannou by decision   - 2 (7.4%)
Draw   - 0 (0%)
Total Voters: 27

The majority of the voters of this poll believe that Ngannou will knock out Joshua and that includes me, I still believe that Ngannou is on the right track in his training, and it seems Joshua's manager Hearns is fully aware that Ngannou is favored to win the match that he releases this statement, this is to make it appear that Joshua is in top shape and Ngannou is in big trouble.

Anthony Joshua vs Francis Ngannou: Eddie Hearn Gives Update on AJ’s Shape, Warns Former MMA Star (https://sportsbrief.com/boxing/59541-anthony-joshua-francis-ngannou-eddie-hearn-update-ajs-shape-warns-mma-star/)

I don't think this will scare Ngannou and its a bad tactic it will just motivate Ngannou to be at his best because Joshua has a lot of weaknesses, once he hurts Joshua, he will become timid and just become defensive just like what happened to his match against Ruiz and Usyk.
For the record, Ngannou was never been knocked down or seriously hurt in all his matches and I don't think Joshua is the first that will hurt him.

^^ Just typical for a promoter to say this kind of statement and it's either will backfire on them as Francis or someone from his camp reads it, might motivate them to knock Joshua out. Or AJ is really in good shape for this fight and will show it here.

We are entering the last week of February, and we all know that how time flies.

Francis Ngannou is still 4:1 underdog.

Joshua wants to be in the best shape of his fighting career because fighters that have floored and beaten him, Usyk and Ruiz their power is nothing compared to Ngannou's, and Joshua has no recovery power when hit by big punches, as shown on his fight against Ruiz where he spit his mouthpiece failed to response to the referee when asked if he wants to continue, he is easily frustrated and disoriented when hit by big punches.

Joshua may be the favorite in this fight but he has excess baggage brought on by three humiliating losses and Ngannou has nothing to lose because this is his second fight and he can always shift to MMA if something does not go according to his plan in boxing but for Joshua, if he losses the fight that could be the end of his career and it's going to be a tough climb, he cannot lose on this very important fight this is possibly his last chance to regain a heavyweight title and a chance to fight Fury for the title Greatest heavyweight champion of all time


JOSHUA CLAIMS NGANNOU IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE OF HIS LIFE (https://proboxtv.com/news/joshua-claims-ngannou-biggest-challenge-his-life/)

Who cares in what shapes AJ is, when his biggest problem is his mental preparation to a fight. What is AJ biggest achievement since he regained his title from Ruiz? Top10 WBO Pulev? Or top9 WBA Franklin? Ranked 8th in IBF Wallin? The fact that he has won 3 fights after 2 losses to Usyk, who he admited he does not understand how to beat, does not make him prepared for a hungry shark like Ngannou. Cant say that AJ is great boxing technician. Probably their fight is going to be a copy/paste of Fury vs Ngannou, despite AJ not having chin out of stone.

I agree Joshua has a mental issue he was exposed in the Ruiz fight, it's hard to accept an undisputed champion to just give up the fight just like that, a true warrior will fight even if he gets knocked out he will fight to the end and will always believe that he can beat his opponent and that he only needs one clear shot, and on Usyk fights after he losses he acted like a child very unusual for a boxer of his stature.
A weak fighter pretending to be a strong fighter will always get exposed when a much stronger fighter comes out to hurt him, come fight night Ngannou will hurt him.

He was a champion, but there's no guarantee that a fighter will remain a champion; only a few have done that. AJ may have suffered a defeat from Ortiz, but in the rematch, he was able to reclaim himself, and that is more important. I think the champion that really has a rough journey now is Wilder because he lost to an unknown boxer, while AJ here is trying to get back to the top and is taking this journey to make that happen.

I don't know. That's a tough spot to be in. On one hand, if Francis defeats AJ, it'd make sense to make him fight one or two more fights before granting him the title fight.
But what happens if Fury beats Usyk, agrees for a rematch with Francis (for a non title fight) and loses. That would render any belts useless in the eyes of boxing fans. It's probably less risky to acknowledge Ngannou as some sort one-in-a-million boxing prodigy and fast-track him to the title shot than pretend he doesn't exist.

It's not going to be a copy-paste. If that powerful Ngannou punch landed on Joshua, it would have been a totally different script forward. In fact it could have been the end. Fury doesn't really have that strong chin. He can be knocked down. Perhaps what he's got is a strong brain or a strong skull because he doesn't seem to feel dizzy or a lack of balance after being knocked down. He cannot absorb the impact because he actually goes down but he seems to easily absorb the effects of the impact. This is something poor AJ doesn't have.

Maybe you are right, because in last two fights, Ngannou managed to surprise me. I have expected him to be clumsy in the ring, to be more snail-paced, but he showed good boxing, good timing, leg movement. Usually guys from mma dont move like that, because they avoid one or double leg takedown. He has surprised in his last mma fight. I have expected him to do pressure and power punches, instead he wrestled more. We expect him to knockout AJ, but he might instead do (or try, as this tactics work) Usyk-style - spam with punches and win by points.

Francis Ngannou training for body shots

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ucZPe9MMUkc

His trainer might be thinking that Joshua will go on the body more early and try to test if Francis can handle that body blows as we have seen Fury didn't used this strategy early and just really aim at the head of Francis and that's why he was caught and getting knock down. So let's see if Joshua will go to the body, but Francis is prepared with those solid balls hitting that body.

This is probably what the team of Joshua is thinking. I also think Joshua should try to focus on Ngannou's body and weaken him. Joshua needs to  take that air out of Ngannou. Ngannou has a small air tank. Focusing on the body would make it lose a lot faster. Rather than hunt Ngannou's head which doesn't really reduce his power, it is probably better to weaken him. Ngannou's power may remain but he would be throwing those powerful punches much slower, making them easier for Joshua to dodge.

The PFL announced (as a BREAKING NEWS) that Francis will return to MMA and will face the winner of Renan Ferriera vs Ryan Bader fight:
https://bloodyelbow.com/2024/02/22/francis-ngannous-first-pfl-fight/

PFL's tweet:
https://twitter.com/PFLMMA/status/1760729268596920462

Is it a sign that Ngannou doesn't have high hopes for his boxing career - I don't know. But apparently, his PFL contract doesn't prevent him from competing in boxing. So maybe he intends to compete in both sports simultaneously, or maybe his return to MMA is contingent on the result of his fight against AJ.

The fight promo trailer is epic, it looks like a movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOHS1ajTmdA

I’m expecting AJ should have an easier time than Fury did against Ngannou. I’m expecting a knockout from AJ in this fight.


sportsbet.io odds @ https://sportsbet.io/sports/event/boxing/international/international-matchups/joshua-anthony-v-ngannou-francis-65988f077c9c2400015fdb47

And to hype the fight even more,

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2024/02/28/fwIro.png

https://twitter.com/MichaelBensonn/status/1762937878483448143

Not sure if someone will try to play this game or not. But if you are interest, you can see the link here, both in English and Arabic: https://www.knockoutchaos.com/.

And my result? I pick Joshua to win, however, Ngannou knock me out,  ;D

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2024/02/28/fwsWT.png

I love it  ;D
This game looks like those old retro games, and I think they could add few more controls and different type of punches, but this is another great way for promoting this fight.
I picked Ngannou and I lost from Joshua, but I am getting better with every new try.

I click the link but the video no longer exist, but I search again and I found this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MhhsTcKg34

nice trailer, this started with Francis vs Fury and they never failed to amazed us, whoever is making this, it's a good way for marketing purposes.
Great job!


Thanks. I'm sticking with AJ here, would not change my decision although Ngannou could knock him cold.

AJ has experience on his side, but that experience will be tested against Francis. The date of the fight draws nearer, and I can only imagine the kind of tension and pressure mounting on both fighters. AJ has seen his better days in boxing I believe, but the better days of Francis are still yet to come. Francis first fight against Tyson Fury is enough mental preparation for the fight against AJ because Fury is even a more skilled and stronger fighter than AJ. AJ will not win easily on March 9th.

The pressure on AJ is more significant than on Francis since he is not a natural boxer and is just starting his journey in the heavyweight division. The reason why he is in this position is due to his impressive showing in his previous fight against Fury. I think the outcome of this fight will determine if Francis truly has the potential to become a champion. As a former champion, AJ understands how much is at stake, and he wouldn't allow Francis to be a hindrance to his goal of becoming a champion again.

The hype is still high, and it seems like the public is favoring Francis to win. They can't be blamed, though, as Francis was able to knock down Fury, who is arguably considered the best in this division and that indicates how dangerous Francis is.

Ngannou I think is the strongest puncher that AJ will encounter, I doubt this will end in a Draw but if the fight result is a draw, I would really think Sky Sports posted this video as a message and it can only mean one thing, it's rigged.

Ruiz made him so underdog and you can compare how Ngannou can easily knock Ruiz down with one hit on the head no sweat. Ngannou is a better fighter and stronger fighter than Ruiz.

The odds however is just not making sense.
AJ 1.22 vs NGannou 4.00

It will be the strongest if Ngannou is able to hit Joshua. AJ knows that if he gets hit, he might not be able to stand up, so it's foolish of him to let that happen. What I see here is that AJ will use his boxing skills, probably his quickness against Ngannou, and will tire him out throughout the entire rounds. AJ also has a high KO rate, but he can't take chances trying to look for a knockout, as there's a risk he will be caught with Ngannou's counter.

Ngannou's fight vs Fury was impressive, but the latter said he didn't prepare for the fight properly. So AJ surely will not say the same since he is up for ranking, so he'll give his 100% to get an impressive win.


FYI, AJ was listed as favorites on their 2 fights. First fight Ruiz upset AJ but on the 2nd fight he beat AJ.
You can check that on his record https://boxrec.com/en/proboxer/659461

Regarding the odds, there's nothing wrong with that IMO .However if you feel that NGannou is underestimated with 4.00 odds, might as well take it and bet.

He has should that he could really be a good boxer, he has the natural talent to be one. Just imagine though if Francis at the young age started to box and developed to be a great professional boxer. But here we are, we will witnessed after this first fight against Fury, if Fury can sustain his good showing against Joshua. Although we have seen the he is a big underdog again.


Yes, it's more of fans wanting him to put a upset here. The first time it was really close and there are pundits who see him winning against Fury. But against shall we shall a weaker opponents and which chin are suspected, fans wants to see him crush AJ and knock him out again.

Agreed! The gamblers who want to bet on Francis Ngannou should be very happy to receive 4.00 odds from the oddsmakers. However, I also agree that Ngannou might be very underestimated for this fight. On Fury vs. Ngannou, I said Fury would put Ngannou on a stretcher and the stretcher will be pulled by Mike Tyson out of the ring. But after witnessing Ngannou's performance against Fury, it was a mistake to underestimate him and what are the oddsmakers doing on Ngannou again? Yes, they are underestimating him hehehehee. I reckon Joshua will not stand up if Ngannou connects.

Few days left for the fight guys, better get your popcorns and beverages ready on time.
If Ngannou manages to win in dominant fashion I expect to see boxing world changed forever, maybe they will start to respect MMA fighters a lot more.
I watched the faceoff and Ngannou looked cooler to me, but better watch press conference and judge for yourself: https://youtu.be/VJd7ey52ZaY

https://images2.imgbox.com/78/bf/5U3QP9bl_o.jpg

Odds on Sportsbet are very juicy on Ngannou, but I dont think this fight is going long distance:
https://sportsbet.io/sports/event/boxing/international/international-matchups/joshua-anthony-v-ngannou-francis-65988f077c9c2400015fdb47

Thanks for sharing. I had a go and managed to beat up Ngannou on the 2nd attempt.

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2024/03/06/yssjj.png

That's an interesting way of promoting a fight, I don't think anyone has done it in the past. They could have done a little better with playability, i.e. add body shots etc.

---

Only two days to go and not much has changed in terms of odds, AJ is still the favourite at x1.27, and betting on Francis you can get x3.75 which is not that much really considering it's only his 2nd boxing fight.

Link to the press conference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooj-jhIvNuI
Shorter version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cm0cnP2rAa8

If Anthony Joshua fails to win by knockout I doubt he will win by any other means because the coming match is an emotional one with many people surprisingly supporting Francis Ngannou this time. There support is a surprise because Anthony Joshua has always been the favorite of many people, the support has been instrumental to his successes even though he is very good at what he does. Now that emotions has creeped, many are saying that it is time for Francis Ngannou to also taste the fame. Is this strong enough to justify a support? I am looking forward to a very interesting match and may the best win.

Many support Ngannou mostly because of his fame. People evaluate those two by watching highlights. Of course Ngannou is discussed more, as we did not see any vicious knockouts from AJ. Also if we look on the base of AJ boxing, then we would find his is an Olympic boxer was originally. That kind of boxing is different from professional. Even though it is also aimed on knocking opponent out, but they win often by gaining points. Maybe this would help AJ to outbox Ngannou technically, but he wont survive clean punch like Fury did. As well as people suppet AJ because he is a national hero, who gon gold Olympic medal. That is imho a bigger recognition than UFC heavyweight.

Are you predicting that Ngannou will knockout Joshua? I reckon Anthony Joshua cannot knockout Ngannou heheheheeh.

@TopTort777. I disagree, Anthony Joshua is also very famous and more famous for boxing fans. This support is certainly because of Francis Ngannou's very shocking performance vs. Tyson Fury. These many fans have supported and predicted that Fury will win very quickly, however, we have witnessed something very different. Tyson Fury was the winner but it was considered an upset for the fans of Fury. Presently it appears that Ngannou is the underdog story in boxing where the many will easily support.

No doubt that among boxers AJ is more popular than Ngannou :D But in general, for people who are just spectators, give them google and they would found that Ngannou is way better than AJ, because he knockout people cold.

Maybe you are right that people support Ngannou because he is an underdog. Just thought about yet. Yes, maybe you are right. People like to support the one who "seems to be weaker", because what is the point when dominant wins dominantly over a weaker opponent.

Or maybe people want more blood, more skulls, more entertainment. If Ngannou wins, he would continue smashing opponents. People miss that hurricane, that power, that brutality that for example Mike Tyson used to created in the ring. People got tired of watching boxers dancing and jabbing/clinching their opponents to death in heavyweights.

Wow! So only around 39% here voted for AJ to win. Around 69% is looking for Ngannou's victory this weekend. I wonder if you guys already took the juicy odds on Ngannou.

Once again I want Ngannou to win. But I don't think he gets lucky for the second time. Fury trained at McDonalds during Ngannou's debut but this time AJ is training hard and is not underestimating. Maybe AJ will try to outbox Ngannou early on, avoiding the heavy punches. AJ is also not very used finishing 12 round fights but his stamina should stay longer than that of Ngannou.

The fact that the scale of his punches was the power of a full force semi truck going towards you is a testament of how strong Ngannou is, I still think that his knockdown on Fury was a win but boxing federation is corrupt. Totally agree with you about the result of the win, more boxers will definitely try their hands against Ngannou and he's going to be getting a payday when this happens, on the alternate that he loses, he'd probably still find some fights but definitely not that spectacular. Another thing that can probably make him sell more fights and rake in more cash is probably through showmanship, make the fight look good on camera and for the spectators, drag it as much as possible and beautifully and he'll definitely find some more fights.
Ngannou's a power puncher so I don't think that it's a no-brainer why they(including me) choose Ngannou. I haven't bet anything yet but tomorrow, I might do it but my money's on Ngannou. AJ's only way out of this one is to knockout Ngannou or tire him out since he's a bigger guy.

His showing against Fury might really do it for boxing fans here to vote for him and bet this victory. AJ's chin has been broken down and once Francis chin touches that, AJ might not withstand the power.


We will find it out, Ngannou's one scary dude, even at the press conference if you watch it and going back and forth against Fury, and let me quote what he said,


It sent shivers to my spine when he talks back to Fury with that.

Yeah, I might have to agree on certain points, specially on the brutality that is Mike Tyson before. We haven't seen that kind of boxers before, Wilder was close with that raw power, but Fury already taken his soul and could be way past his prime after their fight. Now enter Francis Ngannou, fighter from MMA and with raw power, almost upset Tyson Fury if not for the judge. Now we face a soft fighter in Anthony Joshua, chin already suspected and we can just image if he hits that with full power or at least what he gives to Fury, I think AJ might not able to come back and just stay in the canvass and can't recover. So almost everyone voted for him here because that's what we wanted to see in this fight, violent ending with a one punch knockout.

Similar to what I have argued before, this certainly is because of Francis Ngannou's shocking performance against Tyson Fury who is a big name in boxing. Before this, no one has heard of Francis Ngannou's name or has cared for him being a champion in MMA. Also, another reason for this support might be because Ngannou is the underdog for this fight hehehe. The supporters also like Ngannou's story about being a poor child working in the sandmines where he developed a very strong warrior's body hehehe.

although AJ hasn't pushed himself been to his peak lately, I still know that he his a better fighter in this scenario. You know one thing about statistics like this, people would normally wish that the weaker and unpopular one wins in the fight but the reality is that stats don't determine the outcome of a fight.

I'm not underratting Ngannou's  strength in giving Anthony Joshua a fair fight in this coming match but just pin this down that the great AJ will knock him out before the complete round.

Francis Ngannou story can be considered a Rocky story and it will eventually happen if he beats Joshua, some people are still underestimating Ngannou just because he only has one fight but it is different if you win against a regular heavyweight and loses but scores a knockdown against a boxer considered to be a lineal and one of the generations greatest boxer, I have seen the face-off and both fighters are very cordial, both fighters did not engage in any thrash talks and but I don't want to make a mistake that it's a friendly match I expect both fighters to go to for a knock out as this is a very important fight for both fighters, this is a survival fight for both fighters.

For sure, this is going to be a big battle, and it might look like they are respectful, but during fight night, they will take each other off. Specially the power the Ngannou possesses, it might be ugly if he hit Joshua in the face and can't survived. On the other hand, Ngannou says that he admit he struggles in a 10 round fight, but it doesn't mean that he will not go for a knockout everyone he fights. Even in MMA, he always look for a highlight knockout reel and we've seen his opponents just slumping down with eyes rolling and most likely not recalling anything after they wake up.

Final weigh-ins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FpvLa71E_M


There's a lot of jeopardy in this fight. If AJ loses then that's a huge embarrassment and could spell the end of his run to try get his belts back. However, if he wins then that puts him one fight closer to the Fury fight. If he gets a stoppage/KO then that's one thing he managed that Tyson didn't. I think Francis is going to want to make a statement too and go for the KO so he doesn't leave the outcome in the hands of the judges. Francis knows what he's capable of now so he can try use 100% of his punching power whilst knowing he can go the full ten rounds. However, AJ also knows what to expect now and I don't think he will make the same mistake that Tyson did by underestimating him. AJs trainer said he watch the Fury/Ngannou fight over 30 times so they should be well prepared for what Francis will bring.

I think it's more of Francis performance against Tyson Fury. I mean he shows that he is capable of pulling an upset, yes, he admit that he gets tired, but still though we can't take away from his performance and so fans fell in love for Francis. And now that he has another, another high stakes fight, people now are willing to watch him live or PPV and again, hope that he will mind this time.

People are really emotional when they hear stories of boxers, like Manny Pacquiao's rag to riches and maybe it's what they feel about Francis now. But Ngannou should give us the results that we wanted so that they hype will still continue and then facing next the winner of Fury vs Usyk.

Francis Ngannou’s story is fascinating, I think Netflix will make a movie about him soon. For the Antony Joshua-Francis Ngannou fight, my favorite to win is Francis Ngannou. I watched his match against Tyson Fury and with all due respect to Tyson Fury, he was beat in the match and should not have been declared the winner. Francis Ngannou took the world by surprise on that fight, and his confidence is very strong. That being said, Anthony Joshua isn’t in the best of form and I don’t think he can defeat Francis Ngannou tomorrow.

somebody said about this who is also on his side in pushing back Dana White. his story being a poor boy from a poor country who used to be working in a mining company just shoveling sand and gravel now a millionaire in a country he migrated to.  its a fascinating story of success. but i think he needs to win against AJ for the world to see how he overcomes challenges in life. this is the kind of story that inspires someone from Africa.

i think he could KO AJ as early as 3rd round.

Firstly, its a beauty that the games its between two opponents from same race. I mean Africans, so this is indirectly a match between Nigeria and Cameroon. Ngannou has proven himself a professional boxer with his display against Tyson Fury sometimes ago, he wouldn't leave any some unturned in demonstrating his quality against A. Joshua. Joshua know better than allow the new recruit drag his glory to the mud. Its an open bet and will surely be an entertaining match that I'll not miss for any reason. I think both boxers have equal opportunities to win with A. Joshua having a little edge in terms of professional experience, but shit happens and I can't be predicting results from here.

Short video from official weight-ins and the face-off:
https://youtu.be/FFx55fdyY8I?si=LU5LGwkRUBVHT7IG

Ngannou weighed 272.6 pounds (123.6 kg), while Joshua was 252.4 pounds (114.5 kg). Francis is noticeably heavier, but that's not a very significant advantage, his weight is almost the same as in the fight with Fury.
AJ has some height advantage, but Ngannou has already proven he knows how to deal with that.

Yes, it's almost the same weight that Francis carry during the Fury fight. And we saw that with that kind of weight he is carrying, there's a lot of power behind that punch. The only thing that might go against him, and that he admits it, he had problems going into a 10 round fight. So if somehow AJ can extend this fight, he might have a good chance to win as Francis might tire as he is the bigger fighter. But if AJ is not careful and be hit by Francis early and then the memory of Andy Ruiz comes back to him and affected his mentality moving forward in the fight, Ngannou can steal this one and continue the hype train and be fighting the winner of the other Heavyweight fight for a bigger money for him.

That's the kind of strategy has to do, extend this fight and make the judges declare the winner. AJ should recognize his weakness, he has been knockout in his career against a boxer that is not even known to be a KO artist, so it's very dangerous for him to go toe to toe vs Ngannou who is proven to have a power punches. Score and defend, if he will be doing that constantly, he will surely end up as a winner, easy.

I very much agree on this Rocky Balboa storyline. This is also a very good distraction for the people by making them cheer for the underdog and make them dream that a victory for Francis Ngannou is also their victory. The Arab king has done a very good job by creating live action show for everyone hehehehe.

However, will Ngannou make the Rocky storyline a certainty or will the supporters be disappointed again? We cannot certainly know the outcome but we are very much certain that the small and fat Andy Ruiz knocked out Joshua heheh. What would happen if Ngannou connects with a superman punch?

I just love the maturity between this two fighters. Although looking at AJ, you could see that his confidence level is very low and if he goes into the fight like this, he might end up being defeated. Francis on the other hand is coming as an underdog and would obviously want to kick AJs ass in the fight but you can't underestimate what experience can do in determining the outcome of this big encounter. Kind of find it funny whenever Frances talks about fighting outside the boxing rules and feels that he can beat everybody in a street fight.

Damn this is going to be huge if Ngannou wins and wins by knockout. The media would explode with boxer is being knocked out by mma fighter. The price of Ngannou would skyrocket and he would never return to mma anymore. Somehow I feel sorry for AJ if he looses. For me it seems that people either have lost trust in him, or somehow dont like him. If he looses, other fighters are going to make fun of him. And I cant even imagine what would Ngannou do next. Definitely not going to retire, but who would he fight next. Fury again? Usyk? Or like he planned previously - Wilder?

Of a truth, this fight is really going to be a hell of a fight, and this match between Anthony Joshua and Ngannou is going to prove if Ngannou is actually good as we all think, base on his performance between him and wilder.

Another thing I find real interesting is that both of these guys have and African root, so I believe that they both have so many things in common, and I don't actually think this match is going to be less easy for Ngannou as the match against wilder, because as at then he was under rated, but this time he is not, and  his challenger also have the same attributes like him, so it's really going to be a tough and fascinating encounter between them both.

It's gonna be a hell of a match between both fighters, in the sense that, the match holds a lot of decisive career for both fighters as anyone that wins, the win will take them higher and keep their stay in the WBO much stronger than they were before. However, both fighters are much prepared for the bout as we look forward to it in a few hours as AJ wants to make his hope come alive in WBO, and Ngannou on the other hand wants a professional fight against Tyson Fury.

The judgment day, the fight is called, is full of anticipating combo and knockout coming from both fighters since they are both good in that and they are from African roots and they have shown strong displays of performance that are worthy of praise in WBO.

With Ngannou's astonished performance against Tyson Fury last year, which he lost to via split decision after knocking down Tyson Fury. Questions are being asked about whether he can do that to AJ because this fight will define him a lot about having a professional fight against Tyson Fury.

*Correction* Ngannou has only fought Tyson Fury, not Wilder.

You mean Tyson Fury, Ngannou and Wilder hasn't face in the ring before.


We should take out the race narrative though, obviously majority of the boxers right now has some kind of African root so we should negate that already. We should focus more on who thinks is going to win in this fight. Base on the final weigh-in Ngannou is within his fighting weight and that might give AJ a big problem as more weight means more power. But then again, this is his second fight in the boxing ring, while AJ has been fighting against tough customers and he has the advantage as far as experience. But it will be enough for him to make this fight going into distance and not allow Francis to hit him with his power?

I'm hoping that it'll happen, Ngannou is a special fighter I have followed his stint in the UFC and he owns some of the nastiest knockouts in UFC history, I watched him say that without these boxing rules, these guys or boxers are nothing to me, because if the likes of Joshua and Tyson or Usyk goes in MMA Ngannou will just maul these boxers.
Win or lose I read Ngannou will return to MMA but if he beats Joshua decisively he should go on and fight for the heavyweight title, he already made a lot of money in the Tyson fight and even here in the Joshua fight, he should strike it while the iron is hot.

I think everyone is hoping that Ngannou will win since AJ is not the same boxer anymore. If he gave Fury some problem, he might be able to finally have a win here against AJ. But you know, Bookies ain't buying that, they set AJ as a heavy favorite to win, so bettors who supports Ngannou, are we gonna  by that too? Bet on Ngannou and enjoy a huge return with our bet. .



Let us not talk about MMA yet, he has a decent chance of winning here, so why talk about MMA? And it's not sure yet that he will go back, because even if he would loss but will still have a big fight coming, he'll still choose boxing due to its big offer compared to MMA.

I’d like to see Francis win. Might have to toss a couple shekels his way.

We all are, the event is ongoing right now undercard is on the way and it is 1 am midnight here I don't know if I can keep up I have to gulp a lot of caffeine and energy drink I hope these undercards will be short so we can see the two fights we are all waiting for the Zhang - Parker fight and the much awaited main event between Joshua and Ngannou if this fight was held in Las Vegas it should have been noon in my time zone.

Anyway live updates on the fight here

Anthony Joshua vs Francis Ngannou live updates: Fight card results, ring walk times, predictions and more (https://theathletic.com/live-blogs/anthony-joshua-francis-ngannou-live-updates-fight-card-ring-walks-time/WFgfDvqG12JS/)

Just keep refreshing the page for updates per round and fight.

Yeah he should be more focused on the bag, he has had his glory as world best for a while, its time to start thinking in terms of retirement so that he won't be messed up when he retires, you know any famous boxers and athletes had this issue if going bankrupt after their career cause they failed to plan ahead and invest, just leaning on those big paychecks and huge lifestyles would get you wrecked if you don't invest.

In my own estimation, Francis is going to win. Looking at him and what he has done. For Joshua he looks like a shadow of himself. These two are my favorite African fighters and I know it really has nothing to do with boxing other than more money for both fighters. I do not know what will be next move for the both of them. Will Joshua retire is he loses? Will Francis build up momentum from this fiight should he win and try to see how far he will go in boxing since he left the UFC?

francis is also a skilled boxer. that's why it's not making sense when the bookmakers are presenting francis to be the underdog when in fact if we are to measure which of them has the hardest punch, everybody will pick him. they were just banking on who has more experience in boxing.

there could still be an upset but i would see francis winning almost 90% if he would just be careful with his strategy.

In such case you should be super happy about Francis being x3.45 underdog. If you truly believe he's 90% favourite, that's a golden opportunity for you to make easy money.
Personally, I think the odds for Francis are already low, considering it's only his 2nd fight. This means oddsmakers have a lot of confidence in him, or it could be just due to lots of people betting on him. For comparison (as I posted previously) the odds for Andy Ruiz Jr in his first fight against AJ (which he had won) were x12.0.

My estimation of a chance of winning is 65% for AJ and 35% for Ngannou.

Who is really the underdog in this fight? is it Francis Ngannou or Anthony Joshua? I bet many would say that it is Francis, but because pof his very good fight against Fury, he does not feel like the underdog in the fight. The much talked about fight will kick off soon and I can imagine the pressure and tension in the mind of both fighters, they will be wanting to keep the balance.

I fear for AJ, Francis is a good fight, but I hope AJ can win.

This is a big shocker for all of us, Joshua just knocked out Ngannou in one of the nastiest knocks out we've seen in round two, Joshua took only one straight shot on Ngannou's head to flatten Julius, I know that AJ can win the fight but I never thought this could be this easy.

This is the highlight of that one punch knock out
https://twitter.com/bjpenndotcom/status/1766261771969703957

That was unfortunate. I can’t remember the last time I saw someone fold like that. 

Wow. I wasn't expecting that at all. I was expecting Ngannou to want to make a statement in this fight and go for an early KO but it was AJ who made the statement. I've never seen Ngannou even hurt in a fight before nevermind being knocked down several times and then being devastatingly KOed. To see him go down like that and stay down for quite some time was scary. I wonder who's next for both fighters now as Fury and Usyk's two fights are going to take up the rest of the year. I think Francis is fighting MMA in the PFL next but I hope he sticks in boxing, but maybe don't fight somone in the top 3 next  ;D.

I was disappointed with Zhang's result. I thought he did enough to get a draw at least as he had two knockdowns but both fighters were far too apprehensive in the first two rounds not really doing much. I'm sure we will see that fight again soon as Zhang has a rematch clause.

Brutal knockout indeed. So this settles the issue now and move forward and see if we can the "Battle of Great Britain" now that Joshua has won. Time for Tyson Fury to defeat Usyk and face Jushua next.

There's no resistance he just comes in and his defense is open, this is the first career knockout loss of Ngannou I'm sure many people lose their money on this fight I thought that AJ chance to win is through a decision but we never expect a very early knockout.
Ngannou was in trouble throughout the fight watching in the first round I just knew something was not right with Julius.
Although Joshua told him not to leave boxing with this loss I'm sure he'll contemplate if boxing is really for him or if he'll have to go back to MMA.

That's about the fastest boxing match I've streamed live in my entire life, Ngannou's was rendered completely clueless and wasn't even given any chance to be considered as a worthy opponent, Anthony Joshua really made him look like someone that have never been in any kind fighting sport nor mixed martial arts to so honest, he was so defenseless.

Ngannou started off doing kind of well but once he got caught, he didn’t know how to react and it all fell apart for him. Once his confidence was gone Ngannou became lost and AJ, who could sense blood in a water, didn’t hesitate to end the fight in savage fashion.

Ngannou has enough raw talent where he could’ve done really well in boxing if he had followed a more traditional path of building his résumé before challenging the top fighters. Instead he fought two likely hall of fame fighters in his first two fights, which is completely insane, but he’s performed about as well as could be expected of him. He has nothing to be ashamed of given the circumstances.

Anthony Joshua accomplished something that Tyson Fury couldn’t do. Now the pressure is on Fury to beat Usyk, who AJ couldn’t beat, which would set up the biggest fight that can currently be made in boxing.

You're right. This is the first time that Ngannou tasted the bitterness of a knockdown in boxing. He didn't know how to react. He wanted to get back at AJ, wanted to throw a stronger right but he couldn't find the right timing. On the other hand, Joshua was definitely more confident inside him the first time he knocked Ngannou down, this despite him not losing his defenses. He knew Ngannou still has that power in him that could quickly turn his advantage around. But the second time he knocked down Ngannou, he must have decided to finish him once and for all. Ngannou seemed disoriented already.

AJ has done a great job. I was wrong in my prediction.

I was expecting the other result  but I was wrong and to my surprise ? Joshua just needed 2 round to end the bout .
This will be one of the fight that will be remembered in Boxing History when Ngannou has the majority expectation to be a winner.
I watched the game the game with different expectation from the result lol.
Sounds like not worth paying the live stream mate?  ;D I have watched in late broadcast and not check the social media till i end up the matches for not having advance news lol.

And settles the issue that Francis is just a hype job. AJ really train for this hard fight as compare to bum Tyson Fury who was extended against Ngannou.

Fury will have to win his fight against Usyk though to make the fight "Battle of Great Britain" next.

Otherwise it will be AJ vs Usyk for the unified belt. That counter pull of AJ to knockout Ngannou cold, reminds of Lennox Lewis during his prime.

After the first knock down, Francis didn't know what to do and all strategies have been throw out of the window and you can see in his facial expression that he has lost already. But AJ was so focus to really finished him in this fight. He put everything in that overhand and it's scary how Francis landed on the canvass, he could have hurt his knees from the power that AJ put on that one punch. Tyson Fury watching the fight might be thinking, what the hell happen.

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2024/03/09/ycue1.png

https://twitter.com/elusiveraf/status/1766264114156879907


There will be a rematch clause indeed. Was very close, but I think that 2 knockdowns might be enough for for Zhang to win. But Parker uses his boxing IQ and try to survived up to the final bell and Zhang was out of gas.

Never in a second thought Ngannou was going to be defeated in such a kindergarten manner by Anthony Joshua, even though i never really gave it to Joshua I had the conviction that peradventure he won he was going to feel it like he hit a rock for sure after the fight but the show was the opposite.

I had to repeated watch that Joshua's punch that knocked Ngannou off his feet as I was shock myself for someone that never expected things to go this way. I think Joshua seized the day and proved a better boxer dispelling all misgiving comparison  among fans. At least for now congrats champ...

The much-anticipated fight ended in round two, which is disappointing because I had expected that Francis Ngannou would withstand Anthony Joshua for longer rounds considering his last fight with Tyson Fury. However, that's the unpredictability of sports playing out again. The fight reminds me of the days of Mike Tyson when he would knock out his opponents in round one when people were just settling down to enjoy the fight. Anthony will be wishing that Tyson Fury beat Oleksandr Usyk on May 18 in their undisputed heavyweight title fight so that it will pave the way for him to reclaim his lost belt and even more.

Francis Ngannou just had two losses in two fights. But he shouldn't put much pressure on himself because he fought the best which made him achieve quick fame and wealth. For me, he should go back to the drawing board, identify his weakness and work on it. He still has like five years to keep fighting, maybe he could use it to achieve more.

Am not that surprised, because before the fight, I have already stated it here, that both fighters are from the same root, almost all the attributes of Ngannou, Anthony Joshua also possess it, so in as much as Ngannou have the power to give a knock out punch, Anthony Joshua also possess the power also.

Another thing about Ngannou is that the match against wilder, I just felt like he was underated, so wilder took him lightly compared to Anthony Joshua, so congratulations to Anthony Joshua for showing him that has a lot to learn.

right from his statement to the media, it was clear he was missing it all up. Ranting all form of bullshit without putting in the needed work. According to him, it's best to focus on yourself and do what you have to do without knowing what's going on in your opponents mind. And I guess it affected him in the long run cause AJ watched all his previous matches, followed up on his interviews to know what was going on in his and it was all clear that Frances was full of himself and over confident in the fight. If he had faced the fight as an underdog, he would have last longer than been knocked out in all the round.

I predicted AJ to knock him out but didn't know it would come this easy for the champ. Frances was just an easy knot for AJ to crack down.

There are still some questions from boxing fans with the way Ngannou shows in the Fury fight and we think that he had good chances. But Joshua was in a different level in this match. Something is in eyes, maybe he trained very hard but is was a unexpected ending, as he wiped out Ngannou scoring 3 knockdown and the last was so devastated that they have to bring in oxygen to make sure that Francis is ok.


That's what I'm saying, Francis did show himself compose in that fight and we think that he will improved himself and give us good showing. But Joshua in a mission and wanted to make a statement win here.

"Everyone has a plan till they get punched in the face", and this is taking nothing away from Francis, he is an amazing UFC fighter and a good boxer, on another night, with better preparation and a more controlled game plan, his fight with Joshua can go the full distance.

All credits has t go to Joshua now. He came out firing on all cylinders and earned himself an early evening rest an a fat pay cheque.

- Jay -

The outcome of the match between the two boxers is no surprise to me. I predicted it in my earlier replies, in  terms of experience, Joshua is better than. Francis. I applaud Ngannou for his confidence to take up AJ in the fight and  stand up to him like a man. Joshua leveraged on the mistakes of Fury and controlled the game. The punches were so dangerous and hard on Ngannou that he resigned to fate, choose life, instead of death in the hands of an ever determined AJ.

I believe Ngannou has a bright future in heavyweight boxing, but for now, he needs more trainings and experience, hopefully, we'll celebrate him one day

I very much agree. I reckon that I should not be in shock on this , however, it appears that I have overestimated Francis Ngannou but I might also have more underestimation on the improvement of Anthony Joshua with his new boxing coach.

I was very excited on this Rocky Balboa storyline and this mistake made my brain ignore reality. I am ashamed for this. Francis should also return to MMA where he can win or he might declare his retirement hehehe.

On Anthony Joshua, who is speculated to be his next opponent? I want this to be Mike Tyson Fury. I wish the Arab royal family will put much investment on this fight which will certainly force Fury and Joshua to agree hehe.

All I can say is that AJ shocked the world today. Few believed in him, but he managed to finish the fight completely opposite to what everyone expected. I did not believe he would win, not only to KO Ngannou, and in second round. Now there are a lot of question to Ngannou preparation to the fight, his and AJ form. Why he was so good against Fury, and looked so weak against AJ. As if I have watched amateur vs pro fight. Or is Fury that bad? With 0-2 is Ngannou still top15 heavyweight? Questions, questions.

He had a good run in boxing he earned a lot more than all of his fights combined in MMA, we are just surprised that it ended this way there's no resistance, Joshua knows what to do he knows he is not fighting a technical guy all he needs to do is set up that big right and that's all there is.


I think we are seeing a new Anthony Joshua very different when he loses the second time against Usyk, he is now three in a row, and all ended in knockouts, we just have to wait for who's going to win in the Fury - Usyk match, on Ngannou so good against Fury, I think that's because Fury underestimated Ngannou, while AJ train hard and study all of Ngannou's weakness.

I think this ended his boxing run and he may want to go back into MMA because that's what he's planning to do he can go back to boxing anytime, and with this loss, it exposes Ngannou weaknesses that he is not really that invincible.

Maybe few in here, but all over the world, we know AJ is expected to win. We go the betting odds as a proof that he is favored.

On odds like these :

https://www.forbes.com/betting/boxing/what-are-the-odds-for-ngannou-vs-joshua-fight/

That pretty much says it all, AJ was heavily favored and majority of the bettors aren't wrong.

---

That was a big win by AJ, that means Ngannou is not fit in boxing, he should go back to UFC.

Also, AJ proved that he is once again ready for a championship fight.

Ngannou seemed to complacent in the fight, he did not probably think that AJ would go for a kill as he believe that he has more powerful punches and AJ would avoid getting hit. What we saw was the reality, Ngannou is just overrated as a boxer, he almost beat Fury, but that's it. It's not that Fury is bad but it was Fury not taking the fight seriously when they met, that's the reason why he almost lost.

It was a well-deserved victory for Anthony Joshua because he showed Ngannou superiority that he owed the boxing ring before he managed to join boxing from MMA.

I believe that Ngannou will not think of leaving boxing back to MMA despite his ​early defeat to Anthony Joshua. Why will he ever think of making such a move in the first place? Whereby throughout his stay in MMA, he hasn't earned up to $30 million that boxing has given to him in just two fights.

Every great boxer has some point faced defeat in their boxing career and they didn't quit because of that, but instead they become the underdog example Anthony Joshua, Wilder, etc

What is expected from Ngannou is to pick up himself and prepare to be a better version of himself in ways to defend himself properly to withstand deadly punches thrown at him in a boxing fight. With that, he will be fine

You can just open TikTok, watch the knockout moment and close it, that's all. I wouldn't pay for watching 2 rounds. Basically, Ngannou was beaten like a dog.

The next step is: Tyson Fury VS Anthony Joshua. It's just ridiculous how many times Ngannou got knocked. He got knocked for 3 times in 2 rounds with final punch being a total knockout. Tyson Fury should stop drinking and doing some other shit and really think about his performance against Ngannou. It was such a shame for Ngannou, who could imagine if he would be beaten like a kid by adult. Even Jake Paul would be a better opponent, I bet my satoshis.

Tyson Fury VS Anthony Joshua will be a very interesting fight, I hope that fight will happen!

That's the kind of "big winner" he had in his short stint in boxing so far. Just like everyone else, I am also not thinking that he will continue this career after what happened. It look like a mismatch, I hope that the fans that came in to see him were not so disappointed and just accept the result.

Ngannou made the right decision to fight AJ, it's just that AJ's skills are way higher than him, and that is the standard Ngannou has to achieve which I think he can't. So yeah, let's move on and may Ngannou consider leaving boxing the soonest.


Unfortunately for Ngannou he is not a great boxer since his record is 0-2... People are just hyping his first fight resulting to promoters wanting to see him, I hope you guys didn't fall into the trap by betting on Ngannou with that very attractive odds.

The Francis in the fight did not look like the Francis that fought in the last fight against Tyson Fury, he looked really weaker, or maybe AJ trained really well to make him look weak, and then Fury did not train well enough for that fight. There was a lot of people who believed more in Francis for this fight including myself because of well he fought in the last fight where we felt he was robbed. The disbelief in AJ must have also motivated him to ensure that he delivered in the fight.

He does look very well conditioned to fight in the pre-fight conference making some mock. I was rooting for him but this is just a legitimate lights out, he was knocked 3 times and the last is just not making him get up. He was flatlined down the canvas. I don't know if he is just going to make another boxing match later.

Such a big loss for him and this could very well be a lesson for him not to take lightly the boxers that he thought were less powerful than Fury.
If the Saudis are still up to making him fight, he will be given another fighter who will be less powerful and rusty just to boost his confidence.

Exactly, it settles the issue about Ngannou being just hype. But actually it could go the same thing with AJ since he beat a UFC fighter trying to be a boxer. We will know if AJ has really improve once he ges into the championship and will become a champion again.


AJ's win does not declare him to be a champion since it's not a championship fight, hence, there's no belt to unify if he will fight Usyk or Fury in a championship fight as he will only be a challenger.

One of the fastest losses in boxing history. Ngannou thought boxing was all about talking too much and seeing oneself as the winner. He was unaware that the fight with Anthony Joshua would not be the same as his encounter with Tyson Fury, or that it would end so quickly.

Anthony Joshua had trained hard for the bout because he wanted to advance in his boxing career with a victory and he didn't want to let his guard down after losing to Usky twice.

I think Ngannou will seek a rematch from AJ in the future because he never thought he would be knocked out so quickly and without much pressure.

AJ is very desperate to become a champion again that's why he will do everything to be at that stage again. That win will hype his name again and promoters will not be having a hard time to promote his fight. I think they are just waiting for the result of Usyk vs Fury, and hopefully Fury will win so they could market the fight better, AJ vs Fury, it has not happened before, unlike AJ vs Usyk where the latter had already beat AJ twice.



No need, he showed nothing but hype. it's very clear that he is not ready for a big fight like that, AJ trained hard unlike Fury when he faced Ngannou.. And I also don't know if people are still hyped with Ngannou as the hype is necessary for promoters to give this a go.

AJ is young and unafraid to fight someone bigger than him. he fought Usyk twice, and this is certainly a good characteristic for someone deserving to be a champ.

i was expecting Ngannou to win actually. he was unprepared for that kind of strategy, the jab coming from AJ blinds his view to watch what AJ is about to do, and suddenly the right straight hits Ngannou's face.  that kind of defeat is just not going to give Ngannou the right to demand a rematch.

I was rooting for Francis Ngannou to beat Anthony Joshua. I fell for the underdog story, it would have been amazing to see someone come from the MMA to compete with top boxers and get one over them. Francis Ngannou already won me over since his match against Tyson Fury. I was expecting to see that same beast in the ring last night, but Anthony Joshua was a waayyy better fighter last night. Knockout in the second round? Wasn’t expecting that.

A good fight and enjoyed the amazing moves from both fighter and this is exactly what we call professionalism in fighting. Anthony Joshua have his brilliant style of hitting harder against oppositions. He have done it in the past and doing it again does sound easy for the British boxer. He has experienced weigh more than Francis Ngannou who was very tough in his previous matches, however this match taught me a new lesson in boxing, never to predict or place wager in favour of a fighter due to the past fights. Francis Ngannou against Tyson Fury, he was a beast and a pro but against AJ, he turned to a newbie.

I just came back from YouTube, watching KO highlights...
My reaction is WTF rigged! ;D
Ngannou looked like a punching bag as he didn't bother to block/evade AJ's punches. The punch can be seen from miles and yet he got knocked down multiple times... Just Kidding.

This is the result that should happen every time a top boxer fights a non-boxer (MMA, or whatever). You can see AJ was serious (and professional), while Fury wasn't. Ngannou just cannot react to high-level feints and non-telegraphic punches by a top boxer.

Yes, I couldn't agree more with you AJ seemed to have been heavily distracted in the past few years, I don't want to consider a win over a very below average boxer like Ngannou to have an assertion of whether or not Anthony Joshua is back to his best days.


Ngannou should just quit the idea of being boxer, he does have the mindset of one, his defense yesterday made very obvious that he still thinks and fight like an UFC or Mixed Martial Arts fighter, he wouldn't even stand the test of time against a professional middle weight boxer, with such a defense he displayed yesterday. Joshua just threw effective punches through his face at will and with relative ease.

Oh man, Ngannou will remember this humbling defeat for a very long time  ;D
I secretly hoped he could make big sensation and I even put a bet on him to win by decision, but Joshua was every sharp, direct and he put Ngannou in his place.
Maybe it is better for him to take a break from boxing and come back to MMA that is more his familiar territory .

With the recent wins of Anthony Joshua, I think he is back to his best days of dishing out his right-hand blow knockout to his opponent. In his last two fights, he has won them by knockout and this fight wins over Ngannou crowns it all that he is fully back to his old self of winning by knockout.

the hype been given to Ngannou brought him to his downfall. He thought that since he stood against Fury in a fight, he can do the same against Anthony, and even win him. Anthony Joshua been wise, he don't want to be disgraced. That's why he prepared than ever to take on Ngannou, to gave him a quick defeat.

It was a flawless victory for Cameron boxer as he was unable to survive the second round due to his weak effort in the fight. I think he underestimated AJ, who has being training tirelessly to make sure that he defeats Ngannou and got back his respect. What a bad night and fight for Ngannou.

Ngannou should know that AJ is strong and has heavy punches that can make someone collapse after been hit by one of the punches. I think that because Ngannou won Tyson Fury that was why he felt that the fight between him and AJ would be an easy one, but he got defeated so easily and so quick like a baby.

I watched the replay of the fight, and this fight makes it look like we were played by Tyson Fury when he fought Ngannou,  AJ makes Ngannou looks like a novice boxer.  It was very easy for him (AJ) to land heavy punches breaking through Nganou's defenses.  If anyone noticed, that last punch that ended the fight looks like a walk in the park where AJ just goes forward and gives that finishing blow without Ngannou having the capability to block or resist the punch.

[/quote]
I think Tyson Fury does not take Ngannou seriously and possibly Fury is not serious during his fight against him.  It is also possible the fight against Fury is just a promotional fight in order to establish Ngannou's possible great boxing career but I think AJ just ended that plan...  I do not think that a rematch is needed.  We clearly see that Ngannou just can't keep up with AJ's punching power.

The knockout in round 2 was the amazing part of the fight. The fight was entertaining and shocking outcome was generated. The fierce opponent that knocked out Tyson Fury was easily defeated by Anthony Joshua and it's not just an ordinary win but a tremendous one with a KO. Francis Ngannou was favorite to win the match due to his stats and physique, he lay hand on the important matches. Don't underestimate Anthony Joshua simply because he lost significant matches in the past, there's more to observed connecting this fight.

When it comes to stats and history then you would really be having thoughts that Ngannou would be able to take down Fury which same as you said where you would really be having those thoughts that it would be surely an easy win for Ngannou considering that AJ do really have indeed that past defeats matches in the past but we cant really be able to tell on whose gonna win because as long the fight isnt over yet
there's no considered for it to be final and something that you would really be able to tell on whose gonna win. For sure there are tons of people who had lost their bet with Ngannou, including me.  ;D

After the fight, Anthony Joshua advised Francis not to quit boxing because he lost his two first fights. Anthony Joshua Just like some other professionals in the sports must really see a future for Francis hence the reason why they are advising him to keep boxing. He is richer than he was because the compensation for loosing in the fight is still huge for him, but he may not be happy knowing that he lost his two games. As much as we may criticize Francis for losing in this fight also I believe that he has gained some more experience than he had before and that starting by fighting Tyson Fury and then now Anthony Joshua who are two goof fighters, will have an influence on his confidence.

Right, and it just shows what we have suspected, that Tyson Fury didn't put any effort in training fighting Francis and that's why Ngannou was able to last the full fight and almost beat the greatest heavyweight this generation has witnessed.

So it was an easy fight for Joshua, barely breaking any sweat in this fight as if he is on sparring and trying to perfect that right hand. And now know that Ngannou's chin is not that good although AJ punch can brutally knockout anyone with that kind of power behind.

Ngannou underestimated  Anthony Joshua? No I really don't think so, because this guy has nothing to his name, like record of victories and title, compared to Anthony Joshua who have seen it all, so if he actually underated Anthony Joshua, that is stupidity in highest level, and what he fail to understand is that, Anthony Joshua has that power and built like him, and besides, they are both Africans from original, so Ngannou shouldn't have expected an easy fight, because to me, fighting someone that has almost the same qualities as you is extremely difficult, compared to someone totally different, so congratulations to Anthony Joshua for showing superiority and experience over Ngannou.

Francis Ngannou really underestimated Anthony Joshua's abilities and that was why he was defeated flawlessly. Francis is no doubt a good fighter that arrived unprepared for the fight, his defeat should be a lesson to him never to underestimate any fighter again. He just needs to train more and master the skills of boxing to boost his confidence for more challenging fights. Even Anthony has had a fair share of defeats in the history of his career and it is only fair that he encourages another fighter going through the disappointment of defeat never to give up. Anthony Joshua is a good man and he  did the right thing by encouraging Francis never to quit fighting. This is just a period for Francis to gather experiences he'll boost his career with.

I doubt that he underestimated Anthony Joshua. I believe what really happen is we overestimated him thinking he has a shot on beating a real pro boxer AJ. He was there because of the hype, we bought it and we believe he can win, when actually he is not a championship caliber fighter, he is just a newbie in boxing. I know he is good back in UFC, but that does not automatically make him great in boxing as well.

Today I was watching some tiktok videos and one video showed up and I think everyone has to watch this video: www.tiktok.com/@fightmma.hype/video/7344412706214038816
To spoil you, this video shows how Tyson Fury was struggling against Ngannou and then comes the video of how Joshua was playing with Ngannou like the cat plays with a mouse. I still can't believe what I watched. At first I watched the fight where Ngannou won against Tyson Fury and then, months later, I watch a fight where Joshua simply destroys Ngannou.
Now Tyson Fury is making excuses and says that he was shit when he was fighting Ngannou and if he and Jushua fights, Joshue will face absolutely different Fury.
Lots of money will be made if they fight and it will be a hella interesting.

Maybe he was telling the truth as it was a different Ngannou that we saw vs Joshua. Clearly he was mismatch, and we can't say that he wasn't training hard since he came from a loss and wanted to prove himself that he belonged to the league of the big boys and could dominated. I believe a lot of us believe that Ngannou would be a threat to AJ, although he might not beat AJ but at least would give him a tough fight, but turns out it was just a easy peasy for AJ  as he does not need to sweat it out to win.

I couldn’t watch the fight, I just read the review of the fight in the morning, and was surprised how easily AJ managed to defeat Ngannou. There was a lot of talk here that Ngannou would arrange a difficult fight for AJ, but how easily it all happened, I don’t know what to say, it turns out that if we can compare Ngannou’s two fights with Fury and AJ, it turns out that Fury is really in very bad shape, and now it becomes clear why he is playing for time to postpone the fight with Usyk.

AJ is a professional fighter, perhaps Ngannou is not ready for the world of big boxing. I don’t doubt that now there will be talk about revenge and the like, for Ngannou this is a world of big money, which he will try to hold on to as long as possible.

In the fight happened what Mike Tyson used to say "everyone has a game plan until he is punched in the mouth" :D What is exactly what happened to Ngannou. He probably trained and prepared for 10 rounds, but after 2 minutes and first knockdown, his faced showed that he was completely lost. If the rounds would be 5 minutes like in MMA, he wont survive for more than 3 minutes. That belt saved him from knockout in first round imho.

Whos next to beat Ngannou in boxing? Wilder? He would be more quick than AJ, but with same power. First round KO probably? :D

I think his done, or if anyone just wants to make money from his current fame, they will gonna arrange another big fight for him as long as he is making money in the Middle East. Now that he was quickly knocked out like that, he needed some long rest and enjoy the money he made from that fight and get well soon so that he could get back to the right whenever he was ready. It maybe seem easy for him to win against the Heavyweight pro Boxers but in reality, champions like Joshua and Fury are almost impossible to beat because of their long journey of training and experience.

It's Fury's fault, he didn't train well during their fight and after that it made people convinced that Ngannou is a real deal. But it was proven wrong by AJ as he finished the fight early and the fans were shocked. I'm sure they are expecting that this fight will go to distance as AJ will not be so aggressive, but with just quick straight from AJ, Ngannou already felt his power and could not recover his normal strength.

It was suppose to be AJ vs Wilder, but Wilder destroyed his chance.. it could have been more entertaining as Wilder could give AJ a tough fight, but because of what happen to Wilder, Ngannou was given a go to faced AJ and that made AJ to easily win and now he is just waiting for another championship fight.

The fight was too short for any conclusions to be drawn, Joshua hit the body several times, maybe Ngannou was confused, I don’t know, but it was just the beginning of the fight. Ngannou simply missed a very strong shot from Joshua, he missed it too early and it became his fatal mistake. In the second round, it seemed that Ngannou had recovered and could continue the fight, but his defense turned out to be too weak a point for him, and he again missed strong blows. Well, those who said that fighters of other martial arts have no place in professional boxing should be happy with this fight.

There could still be another fight for Ngannou in boxing. Maybe someone who is much fairer to fight. I think Francis is now humble. Sad to see this guy had made a big fuzz in boxing and ended too quickly.

He will fight in PFL soon. If he can make a big KO in there, I think he can once again make a deal in boxing. He should be making it smart in deciding who to fight this time. AJ is not a slow-moving target and he is a very experienced boxer. Too late to realize this.

  People thought Francis will be able to hold off Aj, same way he did Fury. Boxing can be an  unpredictable game, a game where title holders can lose to the underdogs in the case of Anthony Joshua and Francis, I feel like Aj was underestimated in the fight, they didn’t expect the match to take that quick turn of Aj winning by knockout. Now people will know that the UFC is way different from Boxing. Its training is more intensive compared to UFC game. Francis Ngannou  need to consider switching Into boxing. Aj even encouraged he doesn’t give up on his boxing aspiration.  Despite his lost he still  cashout in his ends.
   Personally I think Francis will excel in boxing if he focus on the game, he has the physique  and of course the strength, at least we can’t deny that he has those qualities, he his an amazing athlete and if he keep his mind right and ready he can face any opponent thrown at him.

I highly agree.  Looking at the fight of Nganou against Tyson Fury, the fight makes Ngannou look like a champion-caliber by simply showing us that he can go toe to toe against Tyson Fury and almost won the fight.

So after that fight against Tyson Fury, Ngannou's career gets tons of hype.


or manipulated... to make someone looks good even though they are not.


Well, in sports upset happens normally. but in case of Ngannou against Joshua, I never think that Joshua is the underdog, just by looking at their boxing record, we can easily tell who has the advantage. 0-1 (now 0-2) against 27 -3 (now 28-3). No matter how talented Ngannou is, experience will always prevail unless the opponent gets knocked out.


I think otherwise, with the age of Ngannou who is reaching his 38th birthday this September, there is a slim chance for him to excel in boxing against a champion caliber boxer because his opponent might be much younger and much familiar in boxing than him.  Being outside the prime age simply means his attribute is starting to decline and this will have huge impact in the match.

In boxing they always say that styles make fights. Fury doesn’t have the power that Joshua has and Joshua doesn’t have the chin or stamina that Fury has. They are drastically different fighters and that’s why we saw drastically different outcomes. It doesn’t necessarily tell us who would win in a fight between them because the circumstances are entirely different. Joshua is used to overwhelming his opponents early on but when they are able to withstand his power is when he gets in trouble.

Because Fury is a smart boxer, he doesn't go toe to toe against a known KO artist, he will slowly destroy it with his good head movements and jabs. But if you look at his previous fights, you can say that he really has the power because the last 4 fights before Ngannou, it was all won via KO/TKO.

So if Fury will face AJ, I doubt AJ will win as Fury is hard to beat, he will not allow himself to be careless and try to go for a KO, AJ would love to go for a KO, so probably AJ will catch a powerful counter from Fury, I might be wrong but right now this is my take if they'll ever face.

Now that the hype is on AJ, it would be a great championship fight between the two. However, Fury is into a big fight against Usyk if he loss that would make Usyk to be the best in the heavyweight division since he already beat AJ twice, Wilder is off, and he beat Fury.

Maybe what's intesting after the Fury vs Usyk fight if Fury loss is that they will fight again in a rematch. Maybe a trilogy if Fury wins the 2nd.

ThIs is the exact fact about Joshua, a fighter going against Joshua should make sure he's got the stamina and he can be sure to at some point be able to get an advantage with which he could use against Joshua and that will be exactly after his exhaustion which will come after a long period of fight and that ha been the tactics fury has employed in most of their games which has made it slightly difficult for Joshua most of the times to be able to get a very good tackle against Joshua and that's been the fury advantage over Joshua.

If you are not fit enough to keep up with such stamina it's then seen like you will not find possible victory around Joshua but may only literally struggle around him because he will rush you from the beginning into exhaustion and take advantage of it from there exact what he did to ngannou

Joshua vs Fury has never happened yet, if Fury lost to Usyk, it's reasonable to see Joshua and Fury fight.
I have the feeling Fury will lose against Usyk by KO. It will be sad for Fury fans to see his record have 1 loss and perhaps 2 if he fights AJ too.

There's truth to what they say that it's the punch you don't see coming that knocks you out. Francis didn't see the fist coming. The poll result is Francis Ngannou by KO, so many users must have bet for Francis to win.

Anthony Joshua had the most to lose between him and Ngannou. The knockout punch was a terrible one, I hope Francis Ngannou is okay. Francis Ngannou may have lost the fight but financially I think he did okay. He has made more money in his two boxing matches than he’s made throughout his MMA career. I hope he doesn’t close the door to boxing. There is a lesson to learn from every loss. I bet the next person Francis Ngannou faces in a boxing ring will meet a savage beast.

Tyson Fury recorded a video where he stated that he will surely fight both of them with rematches if they want (and also stating that he will accept it after he batters them). After he beats Usyk and Joshua for two times, then he will fight and beat Ngannou again (as he stated in the video).

I think, he became too confident after beating (I would call it beating) Tyson Fury and anticipated Antony Joshua, he made a huge mistake and got knocked out for that. I think he isn't going to close door to boxing, instead, he has now to prove again that that was just a bad day in the office and that's all. We will definitely see him in boxing again. I would say, it's guaranteed to see Tyson Fury VS Ngannou 2.

AJ was underestimated? Only a casual fan in the sport with zero to little knowledge will underestimate AJ's chances against Ngannou. I want Ngannou to win against AJ but I did not bet. For the knowledgeable fans, it is very hard to imagine a well-trained high ranked losing to Ngannou. These pros spent years since they were kids enhancing their skills and gaining experience.

But in the first place, Francis is just into boxing to cash out that can set his financial freedom. Surviving, scoring a knock down and losing close to Fury was a bonus. I am glad Ngannou earned around $30 million in just 2 fights. He deserved it. He can retire for good and help grow PFL.

Yes, AJ was underestimated. Look at vote results. 18 out of 29 were in Ngannou favor. People have voted not based with their record, but by eyes (Ngannou highlights on youtube are much better than AJs :D). In addition previous unimpressive performances by AJ confused many. I was the one who did not believe that AJ will be exactly the one who would put a solid dot on Ngannou boxing skill/career. Actually Fury must have done it :D I like one comment from youtube "AJ has cleaned the mess Fury created" :D

It's more of the feeling that boxing fans here thought that Francis has enough skills to bet a professional boxer (as Francis background is MMA). But it's not going to happen though, at least AJ proved everyone wrong again that Ngannou because of his power is enough to beat him. And we see the skill difference, AJ shows that technique is better that raw power. Did not give Ngannou any chance to settle with him, but instead AJ took it easy and uses his strategy and what they have plan with his trainer. It's simply actually, he attack the body early and Francis fall for it. He tried to block it and then AJ goes to the head when Francis read that AJ will go to the body again. So it's a misdirection and boxer knows for that kind of simply but effective technique.

As Dana White put it,


https://www.boxingscene.com/dana-white-s-how-crossovers-into-boxing-end--182037

@inthelongrun - I do agree, I think if you are really a boxing fan, we all know that at some point, the skills of AJ as boxer will take over.

However, I don't think that this will stop though, those MMA fighters crossing over and making a ton of money like what Francis got in only 2 fights as a pro boxer. And we have the classic example of Floyd vs Conor as the first cross over fights that generated tons of money to a MMA fighter.

It won't stop this kind of fights though, know we have Tyson vs Jake Paul. And we have seen the Suga Sean O’Malley calling out Ryan Garcia. So there is this blue print for UFC fighters calling out professional boxers to make a lot of money, money that they can't earn under Dana White even if they are the best fighters in their organizations. Conor proved it already and now seems to be semi-retired because of the biggest paycheck he received from Floyd. Same with Francis, he can go back to PFL, but he might fight another HW for this retirement, could be rematch with anyone of the HW as I think Francis could still have some hype even if he loses to AJ this way.

You have your own opinion on that but I don't actually see it's gonna happen. Fury is good in making adjustment and he will not allow to lose by KO. He might not be a KO artist like AJ and Wilder, at least on their level but we saw how smart he is on his championship fights. I can't blame people not trusting him because of his physical appearance, I mean he doesn' have much muscles but this guy has a solid chin and has a power to KO his opponent.


I hope they're able to accept the defeat, LOL.. they ride the hype, can't blame them.

After such a fight, AJ may not agree to a rematch, and probably no one sees the point in it now, not even Ngannou. Although it was initially a matter of money, and Ngannou would rather have tried to negotiate a rematch with Fury, he had more chances in that fight.

Ngannou needs a little time to recover from such a defeat, and then I have no doubt that he will look for a fight for big money, although if you look at his fees for the last fight, Ngannou received $20 million. I think this fee alone is enough to stop thinking about rematches. Of course, no one wants to end their career with such a fight.

Well, if they still gonna give him another chance to fight Fury, then he is the lucky guy right now because it's another huge opportunity for him to earn big money and also he will have a chance to regain back his honor if ever he gives Fury the best beating of his life while at the same time winning that fight. But we all know, that seems impossible right now especially since he already exposed his weakness to the world and surely Fury will use it against him if ever they fight once again in the future.

As long as both can make a decent money, they could agree for a rematch. Especially for AJ, this should not be a problem as he already beat Ngannou once, easily.... So it is now depending on the promoter if they are willing to risk promoting a rematch without an assurance that they could still get the support of the fans like on their first meeting.

If I were to evaluate, I don't find it necessary anymore as surely the fans will not watch this knowing Ngannou will still lose again in KO.

Maybe give Ngannou a fight first, wait if he wins, then they can create this rematch as the hype is alive again.

Yeah, perhaps they will still milk Francis to the max here, in any case that Fury losses to Usyk, then maybe Ngannou vs Fury again, to make more money for both of this fighter. And as long as Francis is still well love by the boxing community, he can still look for another big paycheck here.

I do agree that Ngannou has been destroyed, but as per AJ advise he could continue to box. He can go back to PFL after this win and then chase who over is available for him. Would love to see him test Usyk or even Zhang or Parker.

I think Ngannou's boxing adventure is most likely over. there's no way he would get contracted to fight any top boxers, a rematch with Fury is off the table now that he lost to AJ. Fury initially expressed his interest in fighting Francis again, but now it would be a horrible choice, and we'll probably see Tyson fighting AJ instead.
I think Francis is already aware of that and that's why he has a PFL fight scheduled for later in the year. But if he was serious about staying in boxing, he would need to defeat some slightly lower ranked opponent before getting a chance to fight the top guys again.

I don’t see how he could go back to MMA after securing a $20,000,000 payday. I also don’t see how he could command that payday again after his last showing. The best thing for him to do is get some endorsements and live his life to the fullest without stepping foot back in a ring. I’m guessing he wants to keep fighting though.

He has to. He signed a deal with the PFL and also has equity in them so it's in his interests to promote them, but he's said his gameplan was always to do both. He might not have much motivation to fight in MMA given I believe his PFL guarantee is 2 million per fight, but I also think the price he commands will have fallen significantly after the bad AJ loss. Personally, I think his best option is to go blitz someone in the PFL and then fight another decent boxer, but maybe not one of the current top 5. I think a good boxing match for both parties would be Ngannou V Wilder. Wilder had a bad performance last against Jospeh Parker so will be wanting to get some of his mojo back and he's been pretty much cast-aside right now and doesn't really have anything to fight for so he might as well take the money whilst he can. I'd also like to see him rematch Fury but Fury will be tied up most of this year with the two Usyk fights and then I'm sure he will go for the AJ fight unless something stops that like AJ going for the third Usyk fight if Usyk still has the belts.

Right from before this event I was thinking it would be a very tough fight for Joshua but after watching it my view changed, Anthony had power punched this milf with some hard-core knock down punches that he needed oxygen to survive.

Well I expected this from Joshua, it's not the first time he is showing this much strength and having a flawless win like this one.

That was a total humiliation on which even on that Round 1 knock out on which i do really have that kind of question in my mind on how the heck Ngannou wont be able to judge that one?
He had put up his guard up with both hands but that straight jab did really push through into his face and knock him out. You could really see the power is there on which that
was really that flawless from AJ. On the next one on which he had made out that dominating KO which Ngannou flips out.  :D

This is some side comment from Fury.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZYJk05OtMg
'YOU GOT COCKY & GOT KNOCKED OUT' - TYSON FURY REACTS TO ANTHONY JOSHUA DESTROYING FRANCIS NGANNOU

^^ I think you can expect that from Fury, I mean Ngannou give Fury one hell of a fight and others says that Francis did enough to win. And even in the press conference, Fury is there and trying to play mind games with Ngannou and I think we all heard what Francis said.

Yes, he can go back to PFL as this is what the contract is,


https://www.mmafighting.com/2023/5/21/23731580/dana-white-rips-into-francis-ngannou-pfl-over-historic-deal-it-makes-no-sense-to-me

Fury has always somethin to say. It's pretty normal to him but we can't criticize on him since until now he is still undefeate despite not having an impressive win over Ngannou, but now that it seems Ngannou is already out of the conversation, then it will him (Fury) and AJ that we might be talking in the future if Fury will be successful in defeating Usyk which many of us here think would not happen.

This was the first time that someone came outside from boxing world and had fights with two boxing champions directly.
I think you are right to say that he should not fight against top boxing fighters anymore, and it takes time to improve skills and recover mentally and physically.
Wilder vs Ngannou would be interesting to watch, but I think one of them would end up on floor early, maybe Ngannou again.

Instead I would better watch Ngannou having mma fight. I am more interested to see if he still has that "mma skill" or turning into boxing changed his style. According to wiki, his next fight in mma would be against Renan Ferreira who has knocked out Ryan Bader in 21 sec of first round. Ferreiras record is also impressive 11 KOes in 13 wins. Perhaps next time Ngannou will end up on the floor early will be the octagon floor.

And it also added that Francis chin has been broken already so maybe his aura of invincibility is gone as far as MMA goes and whoever his opponent will be will target that chin and obviously is going to test Francis now and most likely they won't be intimidated by it. On the contrary they will used that knockout against him, MMA has a lot of trash talkers as well so maybe Renan Ferreira as part of the psyche war. Not sure when is the date of his next fight. Probably Francis is just healing after that devastating lost from the hands of AJ. But we will see if he still has it, or if AJ took his soul already.

We can't underestimate his skills in MMA. In fact, we should be amaze with his performance in boxing which is not his main sport. Lots of popular MMA fighters that are not doing good in boxing, just like McGregor, when he fought Mayweather he doesn't look like he has a chance, at least Ngannou were able to amaze the world giving Fury a hard fight that resulted to a controversial decision.

Yeah, maybe Ngannou has a better chance of winning against Wilder because that guy has little skills in boxing.

Dana White is right, former UFC fighters crossing into a different sport ended like that. They ended up becoming multi-millionaires. Who cares about losing in another sport for a big payday. It's like Lebron James losing to Lionel Messi in a soccer exhibition game. No shame in that IMO. It only bring shame on Dana and his partners for keeping the huge part of UFC revenue.

Until UFC stars are not getting the same level of revenue share boxers are getting, it won't stop them from wanting to crossover.

If Wilder will not train hard, then maybe. But in case Wilder will be back, I'm sure he will train hard because he was coming from a loss, a huge upset. it was suppose to be Wilder vs AJ but Wilder said good bye early. LOL...

I don't know if Francis will still return in boxing after that embarrassing loss.



They were there for the money in the first place. Fighters are more practical now, they understand that it's a short term career, so they will find a way to maximize their earning. And since exhibition fights are already accepted now, it has become normal already and people will not criticize.

For sure, Ngannou will excel in boxing with time, if puts his mind to it, at least he now knows that boxing is not only by physical strength alone but by the way one applies their defense and tactics they use to attack their opponent.

A boxer doesn't go into a fight against their opponent with a defenseless method, hoping to win them by that. That's the mistake Ngannou made to fight Anthony Joshua who is fast and tactical in boxing.

I don't think Ngannou studied Anthony Joshua's fighting skills. That was why was beaten up like an amateur boxer, he came into boxing newly.

That will be a great fight, two heavy hitters. But I think Wilder will still have the advantage.


It might be good if Dana will also address that, the payday in UFC is small as compare to these boxers who are getting millions in every fight if they are a champion. Unlike UFC fighters though. Perhaps fighters like Conor or Jones can command millions per fight. But the rest is getting little paycheck to paycheck. So it make sense for fighters like Francis to set greener pasteur on the other side of the fence.

Not a big fan of Wilder, but I wouldn't say he's lacking skills. The guy has more knockouts than any other active heavyweight. He also sent Fury to the canvas few times (but then again, so did Francis).
As for the Wilder Vs Ngannou - I think the way AJ defeated Francis effectively killed his boxing hype and he's no longer seen as an attractive opponent. Ironically it would be better if he stayed down after the first knock out, as then it could be spun as a "lucky" punch, or just a brief moment of him getting careless etc. But Joshua was so dominant, that there's no doubt he was just multiple levels above Ngannou in boxing skills.

I think we're much more likely to see Wilder Vs AJ, which would indeed be a great fight to watch.

As for Ngannou, the PFL has already announced he will return to mma and will be fighting Renan Ferreira, although the date is not yet set:
https://www.pflmma.com/news/ngannou-to-make-pfl-mma-debut-against-winner-of-pfl-champions-vs-bellator-champions-heavyweight-superfight-between-renan-ferreira-and-ryan-bader

The first two fighters he has faced in his boxing career are top boxers, against less professional gamblers, I am sure Francis will win. He has had a good taste of boxing and must by now understand that a boxing professional will always be superior to a fighter from the MMA who wants to box.

It is a good learning experience for him, he made some good money while at it, the hype was surely there.

And just like that, the hype have died down for Francis and it proves superiority of boxers over MMA in a boxing match and rules. Yeah, the first one might give him the taste of confidence as he put a good effort and even knock down the best HW in this generation and he could have won in the judges scorecard. But against a well prepared Anthony Joshua, it was a totally different outcome, he was knockout x3 wasn't even get close to what he did against Fury. Maybe in the second tier HW division, he could probably won some, but against the top, like AJ and Usyk, he will look like an amateur against this boxers.

Yeah, Wilder still has the advantage because he is used to the sport more than Ngannou. If only Ngannou is younger, he can developed into a better fighter.


UFC superstars have better contracts now especially to demanding fighters. But still far from boxers' PPV revenue share and their purse guarantees. But maybe boxing superstars are overpaid or their purse guarantees are just too high which is why networks like HBO and Showtime left.


Wilder is overrated, a product of careful matchmaking and was pumping his wins against nobodies. Wilder needs 32 wins before fighting for the belt. Cherry picked opponents for his title defenses. Ducked Wladimir Klitschko for years hostage the belt and preventing the division to have an undisputed champion. Instead of challenging AJ for the undisputed belts he challenged and tried to exploit Fury who just came back from long years of inactivity and mental problems. AJ only need 15 and Usyk only 9 fights before having their title fights and were ready to unify the belts once they became champions.

I think Ngannou being inactive from MMA is taking a huge risk against Ferreira. We'll see if he takes Ferreira because Ngannou even if he lost badly to AJ might still receive bigger purse in boxing.

Good hit on Wilder :D Its funny how people consider him being a heavyweight, when he weight less than Usyk, who had to gain to be a heavyweight :D That being light on the feet helped him to be a little bit quicker than his opponents and connect overhands or throw those sweeping blows straight from Alabama. Plus his reach advantage.

Francis Ngannou started his boxing career from the top. It’s possible he could have been better off fighting lower division fighters and work his way to the top. That way he would have gained the experience of being a professional boxer but that would mean less money. His fight with Tyson Fury was impressive, and later proved to be undoing. Because he performed so well against Tyson Fury, he got a lot of respect and praise. Anthony Joshaua only showed him Boxing is not the same as MMA fighting.

But he has a lot of hype going into the pro ranks and that's why he started at the top, fighting Tyson Fury and the hype continues because he almost pull an upset, knocking down Tyson Fury. So I don't think that he will start from below those fighters he has fought. The theme here is that there is money to be made by him, and I think this is one of the reasons why he severe his ties with Dana White as he was not offered good money although he can bring fans to the arena and sold out the octagon when he was the main card. He can still go back to PFL and make millions, so it's really a good decision by him to go and try to test the pro ranks and had plan B in case that didn't went well for his career.

Francis Ngannou with UFC managed to become heavyweight champion but it all ended after several problems occurred which were related to what he wanted but Dana could not make it happen and in the end Francis Ngannou decided to stop fighting with UFC.
He entered boxing with great fight at the start of his career, namely against Fury, but Ngannou managed to fight well even though he suffered sensational defeat because many people said that Ngannou should have won.
But in this fight against Anthony Joshua he couldn't fight as well as before against Fury, humiliating knockout defeat made Ngannou feel how difficult it is to get place in boxing.
But Ngannou got it, he managed to earn huge amounts of money and this is one of the reasons Ngannou decided to get into boxing by fighting those top boxers and of course this created hype which was able to bring in huge amounts of money.

Before this fight, I felt that Ngannou would be able to get the win because seeing Ngannou previous fight, he was really great.
It just that Anthony Joshua has very strong punch and managed to knock Ngannou down in the first and second rounds, he is great in MMA or UFC but for boxing Ngannou needs lot of training.

I think he just need to switch completely from MMA training into boxing if he wants to stay in boxing. Or make a decision where he plans to fight in the future. It is impossible to sit on two chairs at once. For example in that fight, when AJ threw fake jabs or body shots what did Ngannou do? He has tried to swipe them secondary hand (not front, right hand, dunno how it is in proper English), leaving full body open. Plus his stance was way to wide for boxing. Of course Ngannou knows better how to box than me, but AJ with such fake shots quickly found a breach in defense and shoot straight. I am not a super expert in boxing, but that move with right arm he made to avoid punch was totally wrong. For MMA it would do, as he might grab that attacking hand, gloves allow that. But in boxing it is totally wrong to do.

It's called parrying in boxing,


https://www.mrdenizates.com/blog/5-types-of-parry-in-boxing

And most likely Joshua and his team have seen this weakness of Ngannou that he will try to block it and so his face will be open for a right straight counter and that's what Joshua did in that 3x knockdown that he score.

Francis wasn't able to recognize it as maybe he is not used to it. However, he can't go full 100% on boxing right now as he has a contract with PFL so he will definitely will go back to MMF again in his next fight.

Totally owned i should say on which even if he tries to parry it but he failed on that 1st round. He should make out some adjustments on which its been clear that AJ had already found that that weakness.
A one clean straight jab in the face would really be definitely be effective or could penetrate that Ngannous defense.  You could see that have right hand cover on the face and the left for parrying but
with those feints then you would really be able to weak or lower your guard down and this is something that AJ does have the edge over the opponent and it was effective.

It is really just that odd that Ngannou didnt really make out some adjustments from that 1st knockdown. He did the same thing on the 2nd and AJ did really made it
that hit hard even more.

You are right, Joshua immediately started make body shots, apparently his team had worked well before this fight and they saw this flaw in his defense. It worked well for AJ and he also caught Ngannou with a good shot at the end of the first round. For AJ, everything turned out perfectly, in heavyweight fights you can’t miss such blows, because one shot can decide the outcome of the fight, in fact, that’s what happened in this fight, and after this shot he was never able to recover, or maybe he just didn’t knew what to do next.

Right, but he could be really desperate already, as we can see that his facial reaction when he goes down the first time. And as Mike Tyson says ""Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth". So that's what happen to Francis here, once he get punched in the mouth goes to the canvass, plans were thrown out of the window.

So there's no adjustment, while AJ read it beautifully, make feints and Francis fall for it, hence he was able to get him go down three times and the last one was so powerful because it was a counter right, he cocked in like a gun and then blasted Ngannou.

Yeah, Usyk was able to transition his body as a heavyweight although still below the usual heavyweight weight. I do not know how Wilder's team assessed his weight. He's too skinny. But maybe his limited skills made his team decide that he continues to weight that way in order to maintain his decent speed. Wilder has nothing to offer except that he is gifted with a powerful punch.

I remember Wilder after his draw with Fury entered the rematch his heaviest in his career but was humiliated. He changed team and once again tried his heaviest weight in the third match but was again knocked out. After that Wilder dropped in weight like his old days but was taken to school by Parker. So I wonder how much he weigh in his next fight.

Don't make me defend Wilder, I don't even like him.
What you wrote is just the nature of boxing. Pretty much every champion has faced accusations of charry picking opponents and avoiding tough fights. The same was said about Klitschko brothers, AJ or Fury. But eventually Wilder did face Fury, who defeated Klitschko and gave a decent fight (the first time around), to be demolished later on. I think he was pretty decent before those losses to Fury, but seems to have fragile mentality.


I would imagine that since the PFL has already announced that Ngannou will be fighting the winner of Ferreira Vs Bader, they must have had at least some sort of pre-agreement if not actual contract already signed, but we'll see.

He was the favorite during the first and 2nd fight between Fury, but in the 3rd, Fury ended and proved that he had won all 3 fights. Wilder was a 100% KO artist before he fough Fury, but he just found his kryptonite as he could not KO Fury, the guy got knock down, got up and continue like nothing happen/ I think that's really how strong Fury is, he might not be a KO artist but anyone who would fight him would struggle to beat him especially if they are thinking of pull up an impressive win.

That is the real strength of Fury; he can deliver big punches that can knock someone out with 1 hi but he can also take the big punches (like from Wilder). To be honest, I didn't expect Fury to recover from all the hits he took in the first fight, but somehow he survived and still won 2 of the 3 fights and drawed the other one.

And that is the big difference between AJ and Fury, Fury has so much recuperation power, I agree with you that no boxer can comeback from that devastating big punch from Wilder and yet we see Fury on the canvass, open his eyes and get up. And this can't be teach by any boxing trainer it's either you have it or don't. And Fury also proved that against Ngannou.

Anyhow, I think the OP should lock this thread for good already.

I think we've given our thoughts on this fight, and most likely after this lost, Ngannou will go back to PFL and fight again and then see if he will go back to boxing in the future.

Since Ngannou has been doing MMA fights for years, his muscle memory is actually registered for him. No matter how much boxing training he does, I think it will be revealed that they have memorized MMA because boxing is in this match. In my opinion, Ngannou can stay in boxing, this comes to my mind. He is currently 0-2, but who will he fight next? He has fought the best fighters he can fight, such as Tyson Fury, AJ. The names they will fight with from now on will not attract much attention and this means that the match will not sell. He and the people in his team know best where his career will go. AJ's comeback was extraordinary, his response to all the criticism was his strikes and knockout. In the Tyson Fury-Ngannou match, Tyson Fury was criticized a lot, but I don't even think Fury took that match seriously and prepared for it.

Purse inflation has certainly been detrimental to the sport of boxing. Fighters are less active than ever and less willing to take risks. It is why Canelo is fighting Munguia instead of Benavidez. Why face a bigger and more dangerous fighter when you can still make tens of millions against an inferior opponent. Let’s keep in mind that to even agree to fight Munguia was a difficult ordeal because Canelo’s preference was the less active and presumably easier Jermall Charlo. Fighters like Gervonta Davis have taken cherry picking to an even more extreme level by entirely avoiding any credible threat and trying to gaslight the public into believing his secondary titles are meaningful accomplishments.

I think the main reason for Wilder's downfall was his lack of resilience and weak mentality. He had a massively inflated ego from the zero-loss and 100% KO record. That was where he was getting his confidence from. The moment that was taken away from him by the draw in their first fight, his mentality collapsed like a house of cards. He realised he was not the "chosen one" destined for success. In the pre-fight interviews he looked scared and broken, Fury was totally dominating him. Before the 3rd, there was even a press conference when he refused to talk at all, which was a massive sign of weakness. Fury even offered to do both parts himself, which was hilarious.

I changed my mind, I want to see Wilder Vs Ngannou now. I think Wilder would be a favourite but it won't be as easy for him as it was for AJ.

No doubt  i think this is a good start for him for him to always challenge professional boxers. This last fight he lost to Anthony Joshua was not really a lost for him but it is a fight that will prepare him for the future. Honestly I like his energy as a fighter,  he really want to go above this level and he will surely do well with the way he is going about boxing. Despite Anthony Joshua has more experience than him, before the fight Francis was so confidence that he is going to win the fight,  this is a good energy a good fighter should always have, to always have the mindset of winning.

Yes, and as we have seen when he lost the second fight, he was blaming everyone, the referee, the costume that he is wearing coming out, his trainer. And that is a sign that his ego has been damage already. And in his last fight he lost, again, I see that his lost with Fury has something to do with that, mentally wise.


The fight is a banger, two heavy hitters, but Wilder will have a massive advantage here in my opinion. Perhaps this fight could be good for him to get back his confidence and maybe still continue with his career and making good money.

Let us not expect from Ngannou, he was already exposed, loss to AJ in just 2 rounds, so there's no reason for promoters to hype him as 0-2 is enough to conclude what he can do in boxing. Wilder vs AJ might be a good fight IMO, after all Wilder is still a boxer and who knows Wilder might upset AJ in this match and will put his name again in the possible championship fight. There's no guarantee that AJ could beat Wilder but I'm sure Wilder will just easily destroy Ngannou, and might experience the worst loss, worst that his loss to AJ. 

Will you take this excuse from Francis as a good reason why his performance in the fight with Anthony Joshua was nothing compared to his first fight?  Do you think time wastage can affect a fighter.
This is where I came across the news: https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/francis-ngannou-claims-late-start-time-affected-him-in-fight-against-anthony-joshua/ar-BB1kisZo

Francis also has his ranking from number 10 in the WBC ranking dropped to number 24 as a result of his poor fight against Anthony Joshua that landed him a second loss in boxing.
https://www.telecomasia.net/news/boxing/ngannou-drops-to-24th-in-wbc-rankings-after-defeat-to-joshua/

Fighters come up with all kinds of weird excuses whenever they lose. It’s not as bad as saying your costume was too heavy, like Deontay Wilder, but it’s also not a convincing reason. Even if there is long delays between fights he could’ve just laid down to rest like those infamous photos of Canelo and Kovalev laying on a couch because DAZN was waiting for a UFC event to finish.

Ngannou lost because Joshua is a superior boxer who hit him with some brutal punches that he didn’t really know how to defend against. It is that simple.


Even with two losses I consider Ngannou more of a legitimate fighter than Jake Paul. In fact, since Jake is fighting a heavyweight next, I see no reason why he couldn’t fight Ngannou but I suspect he will be too scared because Ngannou isn’t almost a senior citizen or a blown up MMA weiterweight.

This is also why according to Teddy Atlas, boxing is dying. Everything about organizing boxing fights and events are for money, however, much of the quality of the fights are low except for some of the main events. I will repeat again that much of them are similar to scam ICOs where the promoters hype their projects then dump them on their own followers. This sport of boxing should be the best against the best. However, coming from different promotions, organizations and the politics of this has made the sport a quagmire. Showtime and HBO have seen the future and it might not be positive.

I laughed at this more than I should've, I haven't seen Jake Paul fight a legitimate fighter, he's like trying to be Floyd Mayweather but at least Mayweather chooses the real fighters when he's fighting unlike with Jake, it's mostly people that's not in the boxing scene for a really long time and most of the time, it's more on exhibition matches, as if he's ever proven himself to the world already that he only does exhibition fights which probably makes him the money but probably not prestige and acclaim as a boxer. Boxing really needs to change as a sport organization, it's so corrupt and the fighters can choose who they want to fight or not when that shouldn't be the case, it should be a test of your might that no matter who is put in front of you, you always do your best to fight them like what Pacquiao did in his time as a boxer.

I think he fought a legitimate boxer before and it was against Tommy Fury, unfortunately he loss, so most probably he won't fight a legitimate boxer because he already experience losing and that will not help if he wants to grow his career. His popularity is really high, that is even despite he is not in a championship yet, even more popular than a boxers who are in a championship fight. 

Time will come, hopefully he will pursue to have a championship fight if his ranking is good so he can prove to the world that he really wants to become a champion and just making an exhibition fights as his stepping stone.

Marvelous conclusion. I would say the same in more detailed form. Ngannou, a 37 years old guy who has been training boxing at 22, had 20 professional mma fights, looks more like a fighter than an 27 years old amateur who has started boxing late and is in the start of his boxing career. Why dont you compare identical career periods to make things more fair ? Who are those first 5-6 Ngannou opponents?

Rachid Benzina - guy with 0-1 record. Debut fight against Ngannou
Zoumana Cisse. 13-3, but Ngannou has lost to him.
Bilal Tahtahi - 0-3.
Nicolas Specq 2-2 when he met Ngannou.
Luc Ngeleka 1-1 when he met Ngannou.

Yeah, these guys are definitely better and experienced than Askren, Woodley and Silva.

Tommy is hardly a professional boxer though. He might have a 10-0 record (including Paul) but he hasn't fought any higher ranked fighter yet. On top of that, it doesn't look like he's too much interested in serious boxing career and in moving up the ranks, as his next opponent is Olajide William Olatunji (aka "KSI"), some other "social media influencer" (which I only know from getting KO'ed by Jake Paul). So it's evident he's in it for the fame/money not for the sport.
But yeah, that was the closest to a real boxer Jake Paul has ever faced. I think there's a big chance he'll get whopped by Mike Tyson in July, despite Tyson being 58 at the date of the fight.