How Bad Is The Ngannou fight for Furys legacy

Nah Patterson went down every time the wind blew hard.

Fury showed zero respect for the sport of boxing when coming in out of shape fir the Ngannou match. He gave zero fks for the sport and it's fans and for Ngannou, his opponent. AJ came in prepared and ready, Fury did not.

Personally I'd have loved to have seen Fury stretched out unconscious by the giant African. Would have served him right and proper.

 

It's almost more embarrassing that Floyd gave a title shot to a 0-0 guy and still got KD'd after coming in prepared. At least Fury has the excuse that he was too lazy and overconfident to train.

 

To be fair, Fury was getting knocked down often as well.

 

His worst ever performance by a very long distance, yet he still won, just.

It's forgotten about, it's only Furys haters and detractors that bring it up.

Clearly he underestimated him massively and trained for it like it'd be an exhibition, which it originally was. A rematch would have been a different fight entirely.

 

I dont disagree with that, but he shouldnt have been given the Fury fight on his debut in the first place. It was just a weird situation all round. No problem at all with Ngannou switching to boxing or even getting slightly fast tracked, but getting a literal active champ for your first fight is absurd.

Can you imagine if AJ had managed to **** the bed too? thankfully he capitalized on Ngannous mistakes early and got him out of there fast, but he isnt exactly the most durable or defensively skilled fighter out there, it was an unnecessary risk.

 

A boxer could definitely land a Hail Mary early in an MMA fight vs a top UFC guy every now and then, but yeah, they arent going to be going to a competitive decision. Fight is over early whichever way it goes.

 

He boxed for years before switching to mma. He exclusively boxed whilst in Cameroon, he boxed for a few years in France. He wasn't a novice. Inexperienced at professional yes, novice...no

 

Ngannou had so many people who hated him for what he did to Glenn and Abraham but because he was so good with his bat and had such a charismatic smile, they came around and admitted that being handsome trumps morality and they grew to love him. So, the fight with Fury was good for both of them, I think.

 

Exactly this. Or any combat sport, for that matter.

I just can't imagine anyone, even an elite fighter, just having a crack at a different martial art, taking on the fricking World Champion no less, and arguably beating them.

It can't be overstated enough how much Fury **** the bed against Ngannou

 

On par with Mayweather losing a couple rounds to McGregor.

 

He didn't train. You could see it. He was extra fat, he had zero muscle tone, he looked weak when clinched up, he was slow, his timing was off, etc.

AJ stepped in to rescue the honor of boxing by showing what SHOULD happen when a novice (even one who is a grizzled vet of a different combat sport) gets in the ring with a champ.

 

Fury had been training in his sport all his life. What is 10 months of inactivity given the expected difference in levels? Also, the trouble with this argument is it leaves out the part about how Ngannou had actually been inactive for far longer than Fury and was coming off a knee surgery to boot

There is no real excuse for how badly he not only diminished himself, but the sport that day. I think those around him knew this as well, which was why they scarpered after the bell

 

Fury is an expert at damaging his own legacy. In fact, it is all he is good at anymore. There are many fighters who would likely embarrass him now if he were to get his lazy fat ass in the ring again. Considering how badly Dubois wiped the floor with AJ, it is beyond comprehension that Fury doesn't have the guts to get AJ in the ring. Given how much money they would both still make from the fight, Fury being scared to lose again is the only rational explanation.

 

Simple - because someone is willing to fight him.

This isn't something boxing did to itself... It's something Fury did to himself and to boxing.

Fury was the one who was willing to let Ngannou jump right up to fighting champions as a 0-0 novice...

And Fury was the one who turned up in crap shape and embarrassed himself and the sport - Joshua might've been opportunistic in taking his own Ngannou fight, but that was more understandable (it had angles to needle Fury with to get him to fight, even though he never did; it had angles of saving boxing's reputation; it had money and hype angles since a lot of the narrative at the time was about how good Ngannou was and less about how bad Fury was).


Never forget, never conflate - this whole circus was entirely on Fury.

 

I'm with you. AJ did no wrong there. He just took advantage of an easy payday that presented itself, that was totally justifiable in taking for multiple reasons. Plus he got to make Fury look bad.