Anthony Joshua vs. Francis Ngannou •

AJ looked awful in Ruiz 1, did you expect him to retire? It's that sort of mindset which encourages cherry picking in boxing.

 

https://www.*******.com/francis-nga...-joshua-out-hes-easier-send-down-fury--180575

Ngannou pretends to knock joshua out !

 

Ngannou should be better than he was vs Fury, he will have a lot more boxing training under his belt. He showed a very good chin against Fury, he is a serious opponent with great power , I predict him to win. He is a freak and should not have been able to compete with Fury.

 

Yeah it's people making all kind of excuse for Fury, when Ngannou was stepping in the ring for the first time in 2 years, never box in a boxing ring amateur or pro, and he was after some hard, hard knee surgery.
He was way more inactive then Fury, and he never went even 3 rounds in a boxing fight. He said it after the fight that he wasn't sure how much punch output to put, as he wasn't sure will his cardio will hold up, and didn't want to punch himself out. He also said that he felt that he had a lot left in the end, and if he can repat it, he would have thrown a lot more punches, and that he will be much better in his next fight.

So AJ essentially is fighting a lot stronger and better version of Ngannou. Fury fought the worst inactive version, and still get beaten like sack of potatoes.

 

Leon Spinks isn't in the HoF, despite defeating lineal/Ring/unified champion Muhammad Ali and being an Olympic gold medallist at light heavyweight. I think he'd have made the Hall if he'd retired at 7-0-1: the 2nd HW champion to retire unbeaten, 1-0 vs Ali and doing so in only 13 months as a pro, the fastest route to the HW title in history and a historic upset.

Chris Byrd isn't in the HoF, despite beating WBO champion Vitali, IBF champion Holyfield and being an Olympic silver medallist at middleweight. I think he'd have made the Hall if he'd retired at 36-2 as a pre-Klitschko era heavyweight, after schooling Holyfield to become a 2x heavyweight titlist and the No.1 American heavyweight.

L. Spinks and Byrd are American which is an advantage given that the Hall is in America and the selection committee is American, so they had it easier than Joshua in that respect but still have not got in.

Joshua's record in America is an abysmal 0-1, suffering a historically massive upset defeat at MSG. He hasn't returned and doesn't seem likely to. This is a major reason why he's not highly regarded in America.

Olympic SHW gold medal credit has been lessened in recent years by Tony Yoka and Joshua's compatriot Audley Harrison. And like Yoka, Joshua's gold medal was won under highly dubious circumstances, in his hometown to boot.

0-1 boxer and UFC lineal heavyweight champion Ngannou beating Joshua would be a massive black eye for boxing at a time when it certainly doesn't need it. Joshua doesn't have the excuses of underestimation and not having any footage to study. And if Joshua loses, he would have two historically massive upset defeats on his ledger rather than one, with his career over if he loses the Ngannou rematch.

I don't think Joshua's modest legacy can sustain another humiliating loss. But what say you?

 

Get a life you deadbeat

 

If N'gannou K.O's Joshua, then N'gannou should be HoF

 

Yes, this is something that is forgotten. Ngannou will without a doubt be substantially better when he faces Joshua. He knows he can do 10 rds of boxing, knows how it feels, will have much more full time boxing training under his belt and will have drawn a lot of confidence from being very competitive with one of the best.

I would have preferred Joshua to step in there with Zhang or Hrgovic, but this is not an easy fight. Ngannou made a fantastic debut and he will be better this time around.

 

Even if it does happen, one fight doesn't define a legacy. If Ngannou does win it the context of that win depends what else he does with his career. If he goes on to be a force in the division winning titles then is it that bad a loss? What if Joshua does what he did after losing to Ruiz and avenges the loss?

People have written on Wilder because of the Parker loss, he's now shot, old, mentally done, but again one loss doesn't define his legacy or lack of it. What if he takes the Zhang fight and KO's Zhang?

Same with Fury after the Ngannou performance, but then he's always been inconsistent if any fighter can come back and give a career defining performance after such a poor one it's Fury.

I recall when people were writing off Usyk at heavyweight because Chisora gave him a tougher fight than expected. Then look what he did vs Joshua twice. You have to look at the whole body of work when looking at legacy. So even a loss to Ngannou doesn't mean Joshua was trash because he's already proven himself as one of the best of the era.

 

If ngannou ko,s joshua it will not be aj,s end but it will rock the entire boxing scene and ngannou will write history

 

No, but it doesn't matter. I am critical of the bodybuilder but Francis isn't good, and if he does win, it just proves how crap the era is

 

He'll make the hall regardless imo.

 

He is of course not a skilled boxer at world class level - how can he be ? But his sheer force seems to balance his only basic boxing skills a lot .

We will definitely know much more after the fight with aj

 

"If Ngannou does win it the context of that win depends what else he does with his career"

Fair point.

"What if Joshua does what he did after losing to Ruiz and avenges the loss?"

It wouldn't diminish the stain even by half.

"What if he takes the Zhang fight and KO's Zhang?"

If Wilder did that it would be big but I seriously doubt he beats anyone now.

"people were writing off Usyk at heavyweight because Chisora gave him a tougher fight than expected."

There's having a tougher than expected or close fight and then there's losing badly/getting KO'd. And although Ngannou could be a very good or very dangerous boxer, the fight has symbolic significance in terms of boxing vs UFC. It's not just any other boxing match.

"So even a loss to Ngannou doesn't mean Joshua was trash"

He's certainly not a "trash" boxer, objectively he's very good. But you can be very good and fail to make the HoF, especially if you have several losses and especially some very bad ones.