Anthony Joshua vs. Francis Ngannou •

And he knocked Mark Hunt down one or twice with low kicks too.

He fought overall 7 rounds against Choi and couldnt drop him once with his punches or kicks:

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Le Banner said about Choi: "He is dangerous, his knees are already almost at the level of my head, he's not human! But he's a good guy and I like him, he's very tough, maybe the strongest guy in K-1, and he has hard bones -- when I kicked him, it hurt my leg!"

True. But in the years 2008 and 2009, Hari fought 14 bouts and only lost 3 of them, one by disqualification against Remy Bonjasky, two by KO against Alistair Overeem and Semmy Schilt.

From his 11 wins, he won 8 times by KO in the first round, against Ray Sefo, Glaube Feitosa, Domagoj Ostojic, Frédéric Sinistra, Semmy Schilt, Zabit Samedov, Ruslan Karaev and Alistair Overeem. Only Peter Aerts and Errol Zimmerman survived the first round, Aerts lost by KO in the second round, Zimmerman in the third round.

Choi stated before his bout against Hari: "He is a great fighter, but I will be different from those who fell in the opening round".[15] Choi was the only from Hari's 11 defeated opponents in 2008 and 2009, who was able to take his best punches and kicks to the head, body and legs without going down once. Hari said after the fight, "I tried to knock him out in the first round, but he has a really strong chin."

Hari was a KO monster in K-1, and Le Banner had the highest KO-Ratio there. Both very powerfull punches and kicks as total package.

Just the punch in the beginning. Look how it smacks and how Choi's head shakes, but he just eats it with ease:

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Guys like him and Niko Valuev can absorb much because of their bone structure.

 

Yes, in his prime he was a lot more well rounded than Hari, and a much more dangerous fighter. Hari had some vicious tools at his disposal but he could never really string everything together into one unified style. Just a really ugly fighter to watch, even though his individual techniques, especially his kicks, were extremely well thrown.

 

Yeah his kicks were pretty solid overall. He had some nice high kick knockouts as well. The low-high kick combo he landed on Goodridge was a thing of beauty.

Le Banner was never the same after Hoost shattered his arm. He remained a top kickboxer up until around 2010/2011, but that definitely took something out of him. Definitely didn't seem to be the same puncher he was beforehand, especially against the top guys.

 

Hari is a mental midget. Remember when

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That was a horrible GP to watch. Hoost gets KOed by the talentless Sapp for the second time in the opening quarter finals, but goes on to the semis because Sapp is injured and then permanently messes up le Banner's arm in a freak accident and goes on to take the crown. I hated that GP.

 

I don't know if I'd necessarily call him a quitter. He just seemed to have a really crappy jaw and zero defence, plus a ton of bad luck (most of it deserved). I don't think I've seen a fighter have so much success in fights he goes on to lose. Even against Verhoeven he was beating Rico's ass and could have cruised to a points win but goes for some dumb spinning kick and twists his knee. Or against the Polish guy he was handily winning then gets hit with an absolute nothing kick that splits open his brow and knocks him out. Like WTF man?

He did have his moments of greatness though. But way too many lapses in concentration and stupid in-ring decisions.

 

Holly Holm

 

Since its too much OT here but one final word:

I think we can all agree that the K-1 strikers (Hoost, Bonjasky, Le Banner, Cro Cop, Sefo, Hunt, Schilt, Aerts, Hug, Filho, Feitosa [his hook kick] etc pp) were all better strikers as 95% of the MMA fighters back then and today.

When now the people say Ngannou was never so hurt before like he was against AJ, which is true of course, its also woth to mention he never fought someone like Hoost, Le Banner, Cro Cop, Hunt etc.

The striking of the elite MMA guys today is not on the same level as from the K-1 guys from back then, at least over 90% not. Ngannou is of course himself a very good striker, but since you see how Badr Hari destroyed Alistair Overeem in their second meeting, i dont have a doubt Hari could destroy Ngannou the same way. Of course Ngannou would also have his chance to KO Hari.

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Kickboxing in the 90s & early 00s was on fire.. Hug was my favourite K1 fighter.. but
Rob Kaman is the GOAT .. Ignashov & Cikatic are underrated.. they don't get mentioned as much as the ones you listed and they should do they were f****** beasts

 

From the fighting skill and ability, yes.

But it seems he never recovered mentally from that lost to little Kaoklai in the fall of 2004. He was never the same afterwards.

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That is interesting. I always wanted to learn Savate actually

 

It only made MMA look bad to people who don't understand how different MMA is from boxing

 

OK points taken, the master of none is inaccurate. I do watch mma, the ufc restarted before boxing after lockdown and I've stuck with it although I'm not gripped by it. I find the wrestling/grappling bjj etc more interesting to watch than the kicking and "striking".

 

Almighty Joshua who doesn't have any chin himself...

 

Joshua has a better chin than Fury. Klitschko was not able to stop Joshua with his best shot. On the other hand.... Fury is floored by amateurs and cruiserweights. xDDDDD

Fury is way too easy to be hit. Joshua would massacre him.