Opportunity Knocks - How Decisively does Joshua have to beat Ngannou to satisfy his legacy?

[Willow The Wisp]

I think this is a great match. It's got the mystery component just as the Ngannou-Fury match did, only this time, it presents Ngannou as a danger man who it now seems, can actually box.

It's got eyes on it. As an MMA fan also, I can attest that with Fury, many within that group turned away, fairly sure that the MMA king had no business in a ring against boxing's best. This time, however, we all know that...yes he does have business!

Finally; Ngannou has shown, that what he excelled at to make him a top G.O.A.T. candidate for MMA, carries 100% into the bigger, older and more widespread world of clean boxing. This is no longer just a theory.

But as boxing folk, we have to beleive that the classic upbringing of an extended, world class amateur career followed by development and ascent to the top in the professional ranks is an irreplaceable, and singular route to becoming a champion in boxing.
With Joshua in shape and riding a wave following the beating of Wallin, that long held belief is being tested.

For Joshua himself, saving tradition and reasserting a strong claim to again being number one on earth, is weighed against retiring as a media invented laughing stock, in this fight, should he get caught or out fought.

Concerns about the Fury-Usyk winner, the massive money associated with Zhilei Zhang in China and America's hope Anderson in the US, and the likely comback of generation rival Wilder is all on hold, pending the performance that he renders in this one fight.

Meanwhile, Francis Ngannou looks to be supremely confident.

Good times!!!!

[kafkod]

This fight is all risk with no possibility of a reward legacy-wise. If he takes him out easily this will reflect more negatively on Fury, who struggled with a fighter in his debut, than it will positively on Joshua. How you gonna get legacy points beating an 0-1 boxer?

This is true. Beating a 0 - 1 novice would do nothing for AJ's legacy ... unless Ngannou could somehow rebound from the loss and become a real force in the division. Which isn't likely to happen, as Francis is already past the usual retirement age for a boxer. So for AJ, this fight is about status/bragging rights in the here and now and progress to a possible legacy defining fight with the winner of Fury/Usyk.

[kafkod]

Because he was meant to make a statement against Ruiz, proving that the loss against him was just a fluke. He did not make a statement but avoided Ruiz for 12 rounds and got the Saudi bag.

He also got his 3 title belts back to become a 2 time world champion.

[Roberto Vasquez]

I don't one fight defines his legacy. He could lose and still have a good legacy - that depends on his record as it stands now and the results that come after. Anyone can lose any given fight. One good sign for Joshua - is he takes all the fights. He's always fighting highly rated guys - win, lose or draw. But he does need the results.

I do think Fury is a good fighter but his record is lacking in legacy terms (as it stands now) - to have only defended his titles 3 times is terrible. Fury has a lot of fans now, but when people look at his record coldly in future - what will they see? He really needs to step it up . But Fury keeps saying he doesn't care about legacy and only cares about money.

[Willow The Wisp]

He also got his 3 title belts back to become a 2 time world champion.

Well, 2-time belt holder, if you want to go strictly on verdict results and facts. The world champion remains Tyson Fury. Never beaten, ever. Lol

[kafkod]

Well, 2-time belt holder, if you want to go strictly on verdict results and facts. The world champion remains Tyson Fury. Never beaten, ever. Lol

A 2 time unified world championship belt holder, if you want to be pedantic about it.

Fury is also a world championship belt holder, as is Usyk, who holds 3 world title belts plus the ring title and has never been beaten, ever.

The upcoming unification fight between Fury and Usyk will decide who the real HW champ is.

[Willow The Wisp]

A 2 time unified world championship belt holder, if you want to be pedantic about it.

Fury is also a world championship belt holder, as is Usyk, who holds 3 world title belts plus the ring title and has never been beaten, ever.

The upcoming unification fight between Fury and Usyk will decide who the real HW champ is.

Indeed it will.

[kafkod]

Indeed it will.

And may the best man win!

[Boxing 112]

At the basic level, all fighters are cut from the same cloth, so the thinking goes. If a pro grade fighter from any full contact combat sport wants to cross over to apply his talents to another set of rules, it pays to know what you're getting into, and it's nessisay to train appropriately. Doing that much right, your natural fighting talent becomes the driver, and the challenge can often times be met.

Just before a near 50 year old former boxer "Merciless" Ray Mercer stepped in with recently deposed, mid-late career UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia, in the main-event of Adrenaline MMA III: Bragging Rights in Alabama back in June 2009, something odd happened.

Regulation challenges from the Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC) forced the promotion to change the clash from a Boxing fight to a MMA fight, disclosing that Mercer had once been a top contender in Boxing, and Sylvia had to be allowed full use of his arsenal in order for the match to be fair. Notwithstanding that Mercer was 15 years Sylvia's senior, and fighting in his first non-scripted MMA fight.
Mercer, always a good puncher, allowed the UFC champ a couple low kicks, then laid him out cold with one shot. It was settled in just nine seconds.

But at the press conference prior to fight, Sylvia and Mercer agreed that "A fight is a fight".
No truer words were ever spoken in combat sports.

In his non-preparation for his non-title 10 rounder with another UFC champion, Francis Ngannou, world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury would have done well to bear those words in mind.
Obviously fat, loose and playful; Fury nearly had his head handed to him, faced not with an MMA fighter from another discipline trying his hand at boxing; but a life-long Boxer who had applied his boxing skills adapted to the rules of MMA, and he had rolled all the best grapplers, wrestlers, kickboxers and martial-artists in the UFC up and smoked them. Moreover, Ngannou came in ready and determined.

Had Fury lost that razor thin verdict, his plans for a huge belt unification showdown with Oleksandr Usyk would have to had been placed on hold, to make way for a redeeming title fight with Ngannou. It was a very close call.

Now, we have another of the best heavyweights of this generation, 2-time multiple belt holder Anthony Joshua facing off against the upstart 2-sport superstar.
In this, we'll be able to see how much of Fury's close call was attributable to Tyson Fury's lackadaisical approach, and how much was Ngannou 's actual boxing talent, honed in the cage against other hybrid warriors.

My question is this:

How good must Anthony Joshua look against Ngannou to bolster his legacy?

We know that Ngannou can box pretty well, and punch great.
He's got to be considered a dangerous opponent for anyone, regardless of the rules, so long as those rules allow him to Box.

But Joshua, was thought to be building towards all-time greatness not so very long ago, as many observers saw him as a frontrunner among the three title claimants Fury, Wilder and Joshua at one point.
Since then, he has suffered some deep lows and most recently, some new highs, and genuinely appears to have recaptured the form that made him the biggest sporting star in the UK.

If A.J. looses this upcoming fight, he will no doubt suffer irreparable harm to his legacy, and possibly drop beneath Frank Bruno on the all-time rank of British Heavyweights, and below the Winner of the upcoming Wardley-Clarke clash in the current Domestic ratings; one has to believe.

But should he win impressively, and knock Francis Ngannou spark out, or somethingvery close to that; he will have outdone his countryman Fury, and perhaps, restored his star status in full.

How badly does Joshua have to beat this newcommer to satistfy you that he is indeed all that he was once thought to be?

AJ winning Ngannou in whatever adds literally nothing to his legacy it is a exhibition fight adds what Mcgregor did to Mayweathers legacy, nothing (outside of financials)

[Willow The Wisp]

AJ winning Ngannou in whatever adds literally nothing to his legacy it is a exhibition fight adds what Mcgregor did to Mayweathers legacy, nothing (outside of financials)

Its in the eye of the beholder I suppose.

An emphatic Joshua win supports the idea that boxing "rules the combat sport world", it seems. Most MMA fighters could claim, crossing over to boxing, that they aren't allowed to bring half of what they do in MMA with them to Boxing. Ngannou is an exception. He brings to boxing EVERYTHING that makes him special in MMA, and if that isn't enough to bother Joshua? A statement has been made.

What is more intriguing still, is the prospect of Joshua losing, or even engaging in a very close fight.

If that happens; the rest of his career becomes suddenly far less relevant than it was before, and any claims to greatness, or near-greatness is out the window for him; and one would suspect that this loss will overshadow the rest of his contributions to the sport, and he becomes the guy who lost, while in his age-range prime, to "an MMA guy".

He would be no more forgiven by the establishment than 2-time UFC champion Tim Sylvia was for embarrassing MMA and the UFC in getting smashed by Ray Mercer.

Pressure?

Joshua is calling this the challenge of his life. And he's right.