Why are boxing fans still undestimating Ngannou?

[hhh1200]

MMA fans pay well, have great viewership, and fall for gimmicks. AJ is going to catch those telegraphed hooks and light him up with combos. The nice thing is, he is probably really durable and he can take a beating for about 6-8 rounds. Good value! Saudis have better match-makers than PBC and DAZN.

[PBR Streetgang]

Small sample size. Ngannou's career in MMA can tell us some things about him (power, durability, etc) but not necessarily how that will translate in boxing. He fought one fight against a guy who isn't the most disciplined and has had inconsistent performances.

Ngannou didn't embarrass himself in the ring and he was very competitive against his opponent. If he is competitive versus another top tier opponent than I think we will know it's not really a fluke.

[ELPacman]

I don't care honestly. If he can bring excitement, bring him in! I just don't want to hear anything about, MMA guys doing better than boxing. If Ngannou wins, he put in the work in a specific craft that has nothing to do with MMA. I would give him his props. I'm just saying, let's get more exciting guys into the heavyweight division. The saying was always, how goes the heavyweight division, goes the health of boxing. Look, I don't believe that personally (I prefer the smaller guys), but it's nice when the world might be talking about a big main event involving the big guys. It brings more eyes to the sport which is always a good thing.

[Stab Master Arson]

He's boxed against a guy who didn't train and didn't take him seriously. And he still lost.

Speaking to IFL TV, Martin Bakole, a regular sparring partner of the Brit’s, says he was not as focused as usual.

“To be honest, I was in Tyson Fury’s camp. If you watch my interview [at the event] when people are asking me, I was saying I will not be surprised to see Ngannou drop Tyson Fury, because, to be honest, Tyson was not 100% focused in the gym. For me, my opinion is the signed contract with Usyk affected his mind for the Ngannou fight.”

Bakole went on to say that Fury wasn’t sparring with the same intensity as he has for previous bouts.

“I’ve never seen Tyson training like that. He was doing four rounds, six rounds in the gym for sparring … Maybe he’s watching this and knows he wasn’t 100% focused That’s not the Tyson Fury I know when he was preparing for Klitschko, Chisora, and Dillian Whyte. This was different.”

Now if he impresses vs Joshua who WILL train and take him seriously, I'll change my opinion. I expect Francis to go to sleep, though.