By: Sean Crose
Let’s get something straight, Francis Ngannou is no joke. While he may not be Muhammad Ali, the man dropped the current lineal heavyweight champion of the world. No matter that Tyson Fury likely didn’t take Ngannou as seriously as he should have before Ngannou introduced him to mat in the third round of their match last fall, novice fighters simply aren’t supposed to drop a heavyweight champion. That goes for former UFC greats as much as it does rank amateurs. And, while Ngannou is essentially a mixed martial artist as opposed to a boxer, Anthony Joshua was right to take the man seriously in their lead up to his own fight against Ngannou last Friday night.
Suffice to say, the preparation paid off for Joshua. Many thought, based on his performance against Fury, that Ngannou had a real chance to defeat Joshua in the ring, just as he had come close to defeating Fury several months earlier (defending champion Fury had ultimately beaten Ngannou by a controversial split decision). They thought wrong. Joshua made it look easy. Brutally easy. After dropping Ngannous twice, Joshua knocked the man out cold in just the second round. The referee didn’t even both to count. He immediately stopped the bout. It took an uncomfortable amount of time for Ngannou to finally get back to his feet. Frightening, nearly awe inspiring stuff.
What does it all mean, though?
While Ngannou did great against Fury, Joshua in a matter of minutes showed that Ngannou couldn’t compete with him in the ring. Boxing, as they say, is about hitting and not getting hit, and Joshua was able to hurt his man without getting hurt himself. Employing effective range, landing hard and with accuracy, exposing his opponent’s shortcomings, Joshua did all these things while wiping the figurative floor with Ngannou last week in Saudi Arabia. Yet when all is said and done, it’s hard to get around the fact that Ngannou was simply in way over his head. Again, the guy is essentially a mixed martial artists as opposed to a boxer.
Still, I have a hard time believing Fury would have made easy work of Ngannou if he had taken the man more seriously. Fury likes to be a bully, both in and out of the ring. Ngannous is bully proof. Sorry, but I just don’t feel Joshua blew out a guy who didn’t belong in the ring with him last week. Ngannou earned a Joshua fight by virtue of giving Fury almost all Fury could handle. To me, that means Joshua is laser focused as he enters the second – or is it the third – act of his career. Only fighters at the top of their games look as good as Joshua did against Ngannou. He would likely have best Ngannou even if he hadn’t trained as well as he had – but Joshua wouldn’t have won the way he did last weekend had he not become thoroughly determined to succeed once more.
Write the man off at your own risk.
