Francis Ngannou vs Derek Chisora, December 2023

Former NFL player and UFC journeyman reject Greg Hardy is a top 100 heavyweight boxer; dominated experienced pros Rahman Jr., Corbin and Neely in his first 12 months as a boxer.

At this point it's lunacy (in my opinion) to suggest that a washed Chisora beats Ngannou, who just took Fury to a 10 round SD in a boxing match. He's been striking for 14-15 years in MMA and boxing, sparred Takam and Joyce extensively. He's a boxer and as Joyce said back in 2020 he can compete at a high level.

Ngannou's transition from MMA to boxing may turn out to be analogous to Holyfield coming up from cruiserweight. No cruiser had any real success at heavy (probably about as much as Greg Hardy has had) prior to Holyfield, so it was assumed that he couldn't succeed. "Why would he have started at cruiser, where there's less money and prestige, if he could compete at heavy?" Every so often someone comes along and breaks the mould.

 

"He admitted that if he would try to put pressure on Fury he wouldn't make it to round 10."

Link?

"no stamina and extremely low work rate."

This is casual drivel.

Ngannou has below average stamina for a top boxer but he still went 10 with Fury and made it competitive. And everyone has a low work rate against Fury. Ngannou threw more punches per round vs Fury than Wlad did. I grant that Wlad fought a much better Fury but the principle is the same. Fury lowers the output of the opponent in a variety of ways, no one does it better statistically.

Chisora isn't wearing Ngannou down; he's getting overpowered and blasted out. It's like Foreman vs Frazier but Frazier's washed up, same stylistic matchup.

 

"I hope the match comes off"

So do I. The only way one can reasonably doubt Ngannou's ability to succeed against the likes of Chisora at this point is if: Fury is completely shot plus had a fat camp instead of a training camp, while grossly underestimating Ngannou and having nothing to study. Considering that Fury dominated and beat down Chisora 11 months ago (taking a lot more out of him and he was already diminished), I don't think that 1. The theory entirely fits 2. That Chisora's the man to beat Ngannou.

"people who moved up to HW"

I said "cruiser" and none of the guys you mentioned were cruisers. Holyfield was written off because "he's a cruiserweight", even though the smaller Spinks had dethroned Holmes, even though the much shorter and stubbier Tyson, who wasn't heavy either, was the dominant heavyweight. We can see historically that fans and "experts" have serious blind spots.

 

272 lbs ripped is something we've never seen before, it's true. Ngannou's attributes are historically unique and that frightens the conservative boxing fan.

One saving grace I guess is that Hardy has a glass chin at 320 lbs but Ngannou certainly doesn't. Ngannou has below average stamina but it's clearly not terrible and his physical attributes tire the opponent out. I think kickboxer Gane in the UFC had good cardio, Francis didn't but Francis won over the full 25 minutes anyway by gassing Gane out and controlling him with superior physicality.

 

"Your hate for fury"

???

"Yes you said Cruiser but that was such a daft point since it hadn't even been around a decade"

It had been around about 9 years and no cruiser had yet done anything at heavy. Then Holyfield came up and broke the mould. People refused to believe it for a long time and kept writing Holyfield off, hence he had more victories as the underdog than perhaps any other top heavyweight in the history of the division. In the 44 year history of cruiserweight there have only been three cruiser-heavy titlists.

The failure of a multitude of inferior MMA strikers such as Hardy (and even he's a relative success, dominating three experienced boxers in his first 12 months and being top 100 ranked) doesn't necessitate Ngannou's failure, given he's the GOAT HW MMA KO artist and UFC lineal champion, not a relatively inexperienced NFL player and UFC journeyman reject.