Anthony Joshua vs. Francis Ngannou •

Yeah, not a good idea to already be talking about Hrgovic for the IBF title in summer. AJ can't sleep on this guy. Whichever way you want to cut it, he performed waaaayyy over expectations against Fury and, as the OP said, will be better this time around.

A fully prepared and locked in AJ with a good gameplan should take this, but even then Ngannou has that punch. If he lands clean all plans go out the window.

 

AJ is going to find out what Fury found out.

NGANNOU BOMBAYE!!

 

Ngannou is not a dummy, he has a very real chance of winning.

 

Where was the ‘kronk’ style come forward fury we saw against wilder?

 

yeah, it's not football in the end of the day, it's a contest of violence. If francis fought most of the top hw in a back alley with his fist only he would get the better of most, even without his other tools. He walks around heavier than AJ too. Anyone built like him is going hurt when he hits you, idc who it is. Francis hit Fury who is more elusive than Aj, and aj got dropped many of times and his chin has taken far more ware.

Mentality to, AJ will quit when the going gets tough, and he's very fragile mentally, which is what Francis excels the most next to his physical gifts.

 

37 year old Ngannou has been boxing since he was 22, sparring with Takam before he was even in the UFC. He's an experienced boxer in reality.

 

Ngannou simply can’t stand off Joshua and allow him to box and dictate the pace,Ngannou has to be on him from the first bell and make it uncomfortable every round for Joshua. Ngannou needs to make it a tear up rather than a boxing match and rely on his natural attributes such as size,strength and chin rather than trying to out box Joshua .

 

Joshua is much easier to KO/TKO than Fury, hence Fury fought 2015 Wlad and Wilder x3, all four times away from home, wasn't KO'd and signed to fight Haye coming off the Cunningham fight. Whereas Joshua has only fought one elite puncher (2017 Wlad in London) and got KO'd by 59% KO ratio Ruiz in 7. Joshua hasn't experienced overcoming serious adversity in a fight since 2017 and that was probably the only time he did. Fury was also never stopped in the amateurs, Joshua was stopped against Nistor.

Ngannou must know that KO'ing Joshua is his most viable path to victory.

If Joshua had been hit by that Ngannou counter left hook to the side of the head, his equilibrium may have gone as it did vs Ruiz. And even if it didn't but Joshua went down anyway, Joshua would have panicked because he's far less composed than Fury and has experienced being stopped in the past. His more limited gas tank would have started to fail him too, along with his shaky self-belief. He also doesn't have the defensive skills, IQ or proven ability to recover of Fury, so Ngannou may have followed up more effectively and taken him out. And if Joshua had gone down more than once, he'd have started thinking about finding a way out as he did after the 3rd KD against Ruiz, or even in the corner before that ("Why am I feeling like this?")

 

I have heard some of this. But how many amateur fights did he have? Lots of guys have boxing experience but how many cross overs from mma do you think can fight on even terms with the champ in boxing? it’s about 0. And Naganou is going to get more skilled doing strictly boxing training they are different sports.

 

Puritty had no amateur fights, started boxing at 22 but TKO11'd Olympic gold medallist 24-0 22 year old Wlad.

Several kickboxers have crossed over and had success in boxing. MMA/UFC is relatively new but Ngannou has been regarded as the most dangerous puncher in MMA history for a while.

Ngannou and his team were preparing for Fury since 2021 at the latest. They are different sports but Ngannou was overwhelmingly a puncher in MMA and trained as a boxer originally for 4 years before he transitioned to MMA at 26, where he still sparred with boxers and had boxing coaches. He's been trained by Dewey Cooper since June 2017. Joyce said in 2020 that Ngannou, who he'd sparred, could potentially KO Whyte, who was a top 5 contender at the time.

Ngannou may improve but it will be marginal as he's a boxer of 15-odd years, not a novice who has been doing it for one training camp.

 

hw boxing is different than all else, same is true for mma.

Boxing at hw is about power, chin, toughness, power punches, as suppose to speed, reflex and footwork you see in other weight classes.

Most hw don't throw combinations in large bunches, it's more single shots with more clinch fighting. Francis has all the tools, exp for Aj can only get him so far. Francis has more experience actually manhandling bigger heavy weights than AJ, and he's not going to be all intimidated by the elusiveness of Aj, Francis has a stiff jab that can keep Aj at bay to land his lead hook from odd angles.

 

This.

Plus Fury seems to have expected to be able to lean on Francis and tire him out like he'd done to Wilder, as if it would work on a man with tree trunk legs because it'd worked on captain twiglet.

Joshua wouldn't come in planning to clinch and lean - in that regard, he'd be at less of a disadvantage than Fury.

On top of that, Joshua never comes in in shape as poor as Fury did for that fight.

Then again, Ngannou isn't entirely orthodox (to be expected given his background and limited pure boxing training)... Fury at times looked surprised by that, and the stiffer Joshua could find it difficult to predict or set up in ways that might work with more normal fighters.

I'd expect AJ to win by KO/TKO around rd6-9ish... But it won't necessarily be straightforward

 

I agree
Joshua has way more experience, but nothing to learn. Francis is just a natural beast and he will learn so much more in the time since Fury

He may not have concentrated in boxing until now, but he has trained to box in some degree for years and he's a natural fighter. Extremely powerful and durable

If he boxed for longer he would be like a modern George Foreman

Aj has been in with handpicked weak opposition recently who don't have Francis power or grit

He may be fighting a 0-1 boxer, but ironically it will be his hardest opponent since Usyk

Frank is going to stiffen him

 

I think his physics are the key .

Normally in a fight an opponent is softened up by hits , he starts to weaken , he sometime is ready to go and eventually he goes .

Fury gave ngannou his best shots and clinches but ngannou was unimpressed . In fact fury started to gas and was ready to go .

Ngannou is not and never will be a world class level technical boxer but he has physics which are superior to any boxer . That carried him during the fury fight .

 

Joshua is always in shape unlike Fury plus I don't think Joshua is looking past Ngannou. If anything I think Joshua will want to have a good performance vs Ngannou to send a message to Fury, also since this fight will attract alot of viewers from boxing/mma world I doubt Joshua will want to be made to look like a laughing stock like Fury did so he'll come prepared.