Anthony Joshua vs. Francis Ngannou •

No Freddy, your opinion is completely welcome. Exactly what I asked for. Thanks.

I’m not a gamer but they’ve obviously tried to appeal to that contingent. I don’t like the grandiose, OTT ring walks - I guess this is an extension of that firmly established trend.

The Fury-Ngannou promo might’ve stamped future efforts as ominous because within a day or so of its release, the fight was of course postponed due to Fury’s cut eye.

Hopefully AJ and Francis can keep themselves out of harms way to be able to fight on schedule. Lol.

 

That's a really good point about the audience that they are trying to reach (which does not include the likes of me!). And if it brings in a greater audience then I guess it will be judged on that level. Not for me but its success will be measured in revenue rather than anything else.

I know what you mean about some of those ring walks! Apollo Creed's George Washington bit seems tame and plausible nowadays. Naseem's flying carpet probably tops it. Although that sad affair with Danny Williams and that Russian guy and the poor bear plumbed new depths.

 

Not three bad at all.

These kind of promos add something different to build ups, and may very well capture the casuals attention.

Not everyone's cup of tea, I know.

Personally, I quite like them.

 

AJ should definitely look to move and jab in this fight. I hope he's been training on his toes in camp. He's got good enough and solid fundamentals after all, he just needs to use them with confidence, precision and good control.

If he gets caught up in exchanges though, he could be in for a very nasty and brutal, but not totally unsurprising KO.

And if he does get KO'd. It's goodnight Vienna, career-wise for the Watford bloke.

I'm rooting for the Cameroonian in this one. Btw.


WAR Ngannou!


There's oooonlyy oneee, Franny Nanny...

 

How Much Is Ngannou Still An Unknown Quantity Heading into the AJ fight? I've heard a wide variety of views.
What did you see in the Fury fight to make you think he could genuinely win?
Or, like me, do you feel that his performance was flattered by an under motivated Fury ?
Either way, it's hard to assess him - still - based off one boxing fight...? The measuring stick is Fury, and where he was at the time. At least the AJ fight will provide definitive answers ...

 

He's a lot better than he was in his MMA days and the fact that he could take Fury down to the wire tells me he has to be taken seriously now. Yeah, I know it was the Pie Shop Version of Fury but still.

 

Not really in my book. Big power,.slow feet and C class skill set. Chin is the one slight unknown. Could be a few cracks in there we don't know about.

 

Ngannou is imho still a very interesting mystery .

He has demonstated incredible physical power in every muscle , thats for sure . He highly likely has also a reinforced chin .

But he is a fighter not a boxer so the very interesting thing will be to see if his body physics can equalize his surely only limited boxing skills without the moment of surprise and against a boxer who takes is serious for sure .

We will see .

 

That's the thing with, Ngannou. We simply just don't know what his full capabilities are. I will say, though, that his debut performance with pork belly slice was damn impressive for me. Regardless if belly was under-par or not. Ngannou put him on his arse and gave a very solid performance. What MORE could you ask of a bloke in these particular circumstances, really?

And that's what makes this AJ fight intriguing for me.

And the absolute fall out of it all he manages to put AJ in cuckoo land...

 

He's decent, but I reckon loses to anybody with decent skills and a decent chin. Only has a chance against AJ because of his power and because Joshua might still not be quite back to his best mentally. I'd pick him to lose to everybody in the current top 15 except for guys like Whyte who have shot chins.

 

As already stated, AJ could and should as the fight progresses, land hard and often. One good thing with AJ is he's a very solid, technically sound and accurate puncher, and when he's having things go his way, a very effective combination puncher so for me, this fight will very much depend on how durable Ngannou is.

If he's still around by the 3rd quarter of the fight, things could start getting very interesting.

 

For a boxer with no amatuer or pro fights he's fundamentally as sounds it gets. Super impressive. Nothing fancy. Feet are right. Hands are great. Feet are slow. Leaning back is the biggest flaw but he gets away with it, clearly MMA experience kicking in there. He's actually quite dangerous from that position because the moment he catches his balance you see he is ready to throw something.

It's clear heavyweights can get away with a lot. The dynamic of being a tank of a man is something people can't appreciate.

His next test is to see how he handles legit power off AJ. It might startle him. It might bounce off that roided dome and leave him unphased. Who knows.

Fury failed because he didn't come with his lateral movement and jab. He realized he needed it mid fight and he just was not in shape for it and his balance was off.

AJ is going to come to jab but he's still a sitting duck himself.

 

Having those qualities is enough to do quite well in almost any year of heavyweight boxing. Primo Carnera was the undisputed champion of the world at one point.