Is Fury afraid that Joshua will convincingly knock out Ngannou while he failed to do so?

He dont care

 

The Fury sphincter is a quivering wreck at the thought of Joshua doing that

 

Yeah. Or at least that he will look good taking a decision.

He already absolutely demolished and desconstructed Wallin.

 

Your mom didn't care about your grammar. You... Little orphan. )

 

I don't think Ngannou will last five rounds.

And Wallin didn't last five with AJ either.


That would be two common opponents that AJ blew out, both of whom went life and death with Fury till the final bell.

And AJ had a better win against the other common opponent, Wlad.

 

After he beats usyk the guy who made Aj have a complete meltdown post fight, I doubt he will care

 

Miniq is shaking in his boots.

 

More entertaining yes, better no.

 

Yes, at some level I think he is.

Fury, for all his devil-may-care persona, is deeply sensitive to things like this, and if Joshua blows Ngannou away on the back of the Wallin win it'll definitely eat into Fury's confidence and sense of self-worth, which would be disastrous for the Usyk fight (if he's even intending on showing up for that one). Those would be two opponents that arguably should hold wins over Fury that Joshua dispatched with ease. Hard to maintain the narrative that Fury is the far superior fighter in that case.

Ngannou's a bit of a dark horse though, and there are still major question marks over how good he is under boxing rules. Did he just come up against a badly undertrained Fury dialling it in or was Fury genuinely shocked by an opponent that was way better than he expected? Probably a bit of both, but in what proportions? Or another option is that Fury is actually shot, and that was literally the best he could perform under the circumstances? Though his conditioning for the Usyk fight if the images are to be believed show that he can still get in shape (albeit under suspicious circumstances) so his shocking shape in the Ngannou fight was probably due to laziness and poor preparation.

I'd like to say Joshua beats him up and stops him, but a man with a granite chin, huge punching power, and huge raw strength in the clinch, not to mention an unorthodox style coming from MMA, is always going to be a risk. I think Joshua understands all this though, and will likely pick his shots, break down Ngannou from range and then land the boom later in the fight. Depending on how good Ngannou's chin and stamina are that'll either result in a late TKO or runaway points dec for Joshua. Regardless, it's a fight Joshua deserves major respect for if he wins.

 

Depends on what you like. He got the stoppage which is always a more emphatic and satisfying way to win than a points decision, especially one where the winner landed minimal shots and fought in a largely negative manner. He also showed his ability to fight back from adversity after getting up from that flush right hand on the jaw (if Fury gets credit for Wilder 1 then Joshua deserves credit here). Plus he was fighting a Wlad who seemed a lot more invigorated and willing to take risks compared to the risk averse champion-run Wlad who wouldn't even give up his ultra safe style against complete no-hopers like Mormeck and Leapai.

 

I consider it a better win as well.

But I'm not hard and fast on the matter.

 

Wait, why isn't AJ being attacked for fighting this opponent instead of Wilder? Or even Parker, Zhang etc.?
The double standards are so laughable.
Fury was rightly attacked for it. But now it's a good fight for Joshie and he can showcase his skillz!

The reality is Fury knows he screwed up and it's expected every ranked HW would beat the mma fighter. If AJ doesn't KO him it will actually look worse for him though as he has the heads up and has trained more seriously. If AJ loses it will be devastating. In that sense it's a surprisingly dumb matchup for them but it just shows how desperate they are even to duck an old Wilder, which would still have made them more money. Wilder is still more likely to bomb him out than the mma fighter.

 

I think that's somewhat simplistic - I don't know many that wanted to see Joshua v Wilder after Parker dismantled him - Wilder is cooked! Joshua would get stick saying that he is only fighting Wilder now as he looks like he is shot and can't pull the trigger.

Personally, I wanted to see Joshua against Zhang, but Ngannou showed enough against Fury that he could potentially captitalise on some of Joshua's vulnerabilities.

IMO Fury only has himself to blame that Joshua is fighting Ngannou
1) He should never have had the Ngannou fight scheduled with Usyk supposedly lined up for Dec 23
2) Fury's poor showing - and especially dogmatic maintenance that he had a great camp - essentially legitimized Ngannou as a contender; MANY people think Ngannou did enough to have the decision himself, me included.
3) It was pretty obvious after that result and showing that Hearn & Joshua would go with Ngannou - whilst there is risk, it is big money and can continue Johsua's trajectory of outshining Fury against common opponents, putting more pressure and doubts on Fury for the Usyk fight

 

I suspect Joshua will serve up one of his stinkers. His Excellency won't get his riyals worth.