Verhoeven and Ngannou

Thats a thought I have since two days. Ngannou vs Verhoeven in a 10 round boxing fight would be a good idea.

 

Yes, that is actually a fight that makes sense. Would be funny if ngannou won. Then everyone would be confused. Triangle theories don't work

 

AJ was able to do that to Ngannou because he could study footage of Ngannou vs Fury.
Same thing happened with Usyk, he had no tape to study and it shocked him. Rico will get KO’d brutally by any top 10 HW in his next fight now they have footage on him.

 

Fury and Usyk both struggled because they both underestimated their opponents. And came in not in the best of shape aswell as having the disadvantage of the surprise factor.

Not to mention Usyk and Fury are not really noted punchers at Heavyweight. So they both got roughed up against physically stronger opponents.

This is a lesson that you don't underestimate anyone. And that these cross over fights shouldn't count as official fights they should be exhibitions nothing more nothing less.

Not to mention active world champions should not be participating in these type of fights. They don't do boxings reputation any good and they never go to plan.

 

We have to take into account those two fighters are literally legendary within their own disciplines and had respectable boxing skills displayed within their arsenals, obviously Verhoeven to a far, far greater extent understands the art of boxing as a science better than Ngannou does. Whether that makes his performance against Fury more impressive than Verhoeven against Usyk idk. They are clearly outstanding fighters and adapted very well. Joshua has done that to several professional boxers, I would have liked Ngannou to have a couple more bouts to judge him better. We will see what Verhoeven does from here to judge just how good he can be.

 

What never ceases to amaze me is the endless amount of passes and excuses AJ gets based on how "confident" he feels. Practically no other fighter gets the benefit of the doubt he does when he comes out looking shite.

Wins a fight? Ah he was confident.

Loses one? Ah, he's lost his confidence otherwise he would have won.

End of the day styles make fights. Ngannou is a guy who chases KOs, and Rico evidently has a bit more to his gameplans.

 

Double like.

 

It’s not like this is entirely unprecedented. Veeraphol Sahaprom, an all-time great in muay thai, won the WBA bantamweight title in just his fourth fight over Daorung Chuvatana. He lost his title in his first defense, but later won the WBC belt, defending the title fourteen times.

There’s a quite a few successful muay thai fighters and champions who transitioned to boxing and won world titles. Samart Payakaroon, Samson Isarn, etc. There’s also a lot of fighters, especially in eastern Europe and Russia, who started with a kickboxing background. Yoshiki Takei was the K-1 Super Bantamweight Championship from 2017 to 2020 and then went on to win the WBO Bantamweight Title in 2024. He even defended his title twice before losing it to Christian Medina. Tenshin Nasukawa has a good chance of becoming a boxing champion at some point if he keeps improving.

These guys know how to fight and have a lot of combat experience. And elite boxing-centric muay thai fighters and kickboxers have better hands than most people here realize. It’s just that their boxing skills are designed for a kickboxing skillset (using a squared stance, mixing in kicks with their combinations, etc).

It doesn’t mean any elite kickboxer can come over to boxing and be successful. It’s a rare feat to win championships in two different combat sports for a reason. But there are definitely some who can. That’s been proven.

 

I would favor Rico but also would not be surprised if Ngannou knocked him out.

 

I'll be surprised if that doesn't happen.

Rico is a more skilled boxer but Ngannou carries more power in his hands, both huge men, would be interesting.

 

Many MMA fans were embarrassed that Alex Pereira came from KB to become champ in a few fights. And since then he has become a long reigning two weight champ.

I suspect that he could have transitioned to boxing and done well too.

 

Alex is definitely an impressive fighting talent. Two division champ in kickboxing and MMA. Might even be a three division UFC champ soon, too. I've wondered if it's possible that a really special athlete could win a major championship in kickboxing (or muay thai), boxing, and MMA. That might just be too tall of a task for any human to realistically achieve, though.