Comments Thread For: Devastating Anthony Joshua Wipes Out Francis Ngannou in Two Rounds

[TheOneAboveAll]

Really?
What would Ngannou do to Fury on the street?

I already said what he'd do to Fury on the street. Fury would end up permanently injured, with two broken legs, two arms pulled from their sockets and a thick load of **** in his shorts. Possibly dead on top of all that. Fury knows that and so do you deep down. Ngannou, for his part, would walk away without a mark on him.

[TMLT87]

But, for those rare souls who DO want a career in fighting.....they'd ALL want to be Boxing, IF they Can do it; because it pays the most on every level, and ties it's stars to a long and glorious History, and it makes headlines across the planet.

Again, its the pay. And the dynamic now is that if you built up a name somewhere else you can somehow skip the line to go right to the kind of pay that elite boxers get, which is pretty ****ed up.

Boxing does not hold the place it once did in terms of prestige and popularity. It commands the same amount of attention as the UFC these days. Obviously most people would rather be in Canelo, AJ or Furys position than any UFC fighter, but would you rather be Jai Opetaia than Alex Pereira? Alimhanuly than Leon Edwards? Tsyzu than Islam? etc. Its not a black and white situation.

I personally don't see what he would have to concern himself with in Spivac, Almeida, Pavlovich or Aspinal in the UFC, but I'd love to see him smash up Jon Jones quite a lot;

Aspinall would have been a major threat imo. Hes not far off the level of size and athleticism that Ngannou brings but is one of the rare cases in the modern era of an actual proper well rounded HW. Almeida obviously just got derailed but he is a high level grappler and its not like Ngannou has faced many of those. Ngannou/Pavlovich would have been wild, i'd favour Ngannou but Pav again matches up well with him in size and reach, is a big puncher and his hands are a bit crisper and quicker. Jones fight would be entirely dependent on how well Ngannous defensive wrestling could hold up, if it held up he'd decaptitate Jones inside a round, if it didnt hes gonna get 50-45'd or stopped when he gasses in the later rounds. Spivac had a bit of a run going but he doesnt really belong in the same bracket as the other challengers imo. Theres also the Gane factor and whether he can shore up his weakness or not.

Anyway, after what just happened I dont think the UFC are really gonna want to bring Ngannou back, especially not considering theres already been a lot of issues between the two. PFL are in a weird position too because as a power move to challenge the UFC they've bent over backwards to bring in a guy whose stock just plummeted before he ever had a fight for them.

[Willow The Wisp]

You'll revise your expert opinion yet again after the Fury-Usyk fight. So certain you are once the fight is over, but does it ever match up to what you thought before? Fury being fleshy and 'casual' isn't any kind of anomaly. He's always fleshy and he looks sharp only about half the time, yet you are convinced that he didn't train a day for Ngannou only because his performance doesn't make sense in your version of reality (that Fury is some kind of ATG). Fury's a lazy guy as champions go and 80% of his legacy is beating a guy who throws one punch. If Wilder - Ngannou comes off, bet some money on Ngannou.

I apologize for sounding like (and for being like) a snob. It's a characteristic that I abhor in others and allow for myself infrequently; but here it is. You've written that Ngannou would beat Wilder, that Ortiz would be a suitable tune-up for Wilder, and that Ngannou would get past a two finger eye jab to "Kill" Tyson Fury in a dirty fight. That's enough to qualify a poster as a neophyte regarding Boxing, MMA & Fighting.
I'm pretty much in & out of message boards; and I don't engage in remedial level education long for those who seem to prefer their homespun wisdom.
Do your thing. UFC Fight Night Tuivasa vs. Tybura is coming right up.

[Willow The Wisp]

Again, its the pay. And the dynamic now is that if you built up a name somewhere else you can somehow skip the line to go right to the kind of pay that elite boxers get, which is pretty ****ed up.

Boxing does not hold the place it once did in terms of prestige and popularity. It commands the same amount of attention as the UFC these days. Obviously most people would rather be in Canelo, AJ or Furys position than any UFC fighter, but would you rather be Jai Opetaia than Alex Pereira? Alimhanuly than Leon Edwards? Tsyzu than Islam? etc. Its not a black and white situation.




Aspinall would have been a major threat imo. Hes not far off the level of size and athleticism that Ngannou brings but is one of the rare cases in the modern era of an actual proper well rounded HW. Almeida obviously just got derailed but he is a high level grappler and its not like Ngannou has faced many of those. Ngannou/Pavlovich would have been wild, i'd favour Ngannou but Pav again matches up well with him in size and reach, is a big puncher and his hands are a bit crisper and quicker. Jones fight would be entirely dependent on how well Ngannous defensive wrestling could hold up, if it held up he'd decaptitate Jones inside a round, if it didnt hes gonna get 50-45'd or stopped when he gasses in the later rounds. Spivac had a bit of a run going but he doesnt really belong in the same bracket as the other challengers imo. Theres also the Gane factor and whether he can shore up his weakness or not.

Anyway, after what just happened I dont think the UFC are really gonna want to bring Ngannou back, especially not considering theres already been a lot of issues between the two. PFL are in a weird position too because as a power move to challenge the UFC they've bent over backwards to bring in a guy whose stock just plummeted before he ever had a fight for them.

Great post, good dialog.

[TMLT87]

Great post, good dialog.

Indeed.

UFC Fight Night Tuivasa vs. Tybura is coming right up.

Haha. I cant tell if theres meant to be sarcasm there but these ****ing Apex cards every week have become borderline unbearable. I miss the days when pretty much every UFC card felt special. Absolute oversaturation now.

[TheOneAboveAll]

I apologize for sounding like (and for being like) a snob. It's a characteristic that I abhor in others and allow for myself infrequently; but here it is. You've written that Ngannou would beat Wilder, that Ortiz would be a suitable tune-up for Wilder, and that Ngannou would get past a two finger eye jab to "Kill" Tyson Fury in a dirty fight. That's enough to qualify a poster as a neophyte regarding Boxing, MMA & Fighting.
I'm pretty much in & out of message boards; and I don't engage in remedial level education long for those who seem to prefer their homespun wisdom.
Do your thing. UFC Fight Night Tuivasa vs. Tybura is coming right up.

Carry on then, Mr. Self-styled snob.

[Willow The Wisp]

The Wlad fight was on of the top 3 worst fights in HW history.

The numbers after 12 rounds: Klitschko 52/231 23% | Fury 86/371 23%

The fact that you're bringing up this terrible fight as a crowning achievement for Fury is embarrassing. Kltischko was 40 years old when he fought both, but AJ's performance was much more impressive and he actually stopped him.

Prime Wilder is also way overrated. We've seen now that he can't even beat Joseph Parker.

Better fight? Yes. Better performance against Klitschko? Not even close. Fury aced an active sitting champion and ripped his belts away from him with ease, then sang (poorly). AJ, in one of the great battles of the era, went life and death with a retired, combacking ex-champion, and for this task, received belts that belonged to Fury, not Klitschko or Joshua.
Thats the history.

Important to note that Klitschko, Fury and Joshua are all amoung the 5 best heavyweights of a grand era of heavyweights. Bigger, stronger and more modern than all of their predecessors.

[N/A]

Better fight? Yes. Better performance against Klitschko? Not even close. Fury aced an active sitting champion and ripped his belts away from him with ease, then sang (poorly). AJ, in one of the great battles of the era, went life and death with a retired, combacking ex-champion, and for this task, received belts that belonged to Fury, not Klitschko or Joshua.
Thats the history.

Important to note that Klitschko, Fury and Joshua are all amoung the 5 best heavyweights of a grand era of heavyweights. Bigger, stronger and more modern than all of their predecessors.

Some fangirls and haters are like that: When Fury joked in the ring with Wlad - Wlad was old, the fight was boring, because he outclassed him, and humiliated him. When AJ barely survived a close fight with the older and inactive Wlad - Wlad was younger and in top shape. Hahaha! These people live in a dreamland.

[Willow The Wisp]

1. Boxing won big tonight - won big how? it's an exhibition fight. any top heavy will wipe the floor with Francis. same thing if a boxer goes to MMA.
2. Regardless of competition, AJ has looked great recently. - won't win against Fury or Wilder.
3. This set up great things for AJ - would use winning against an MMA dude with 2nd boxing in his career as a bargaining tool against top heavies. LMAO
4. I imagine watching tape on Francis benefitted AJ significantly in this fight. - what can you get from a dude with no boxing background
5. Fury looked super lean. This makes me excited even more for the next year of the HW division - good luck

Well, hold on just a moment friend. There are always multiple perspectives on these things.
1. Boxing did, in a very real sense, "win big", because the UFC had a dominant alpha division champion, who had beaten nearly all other past UFC heavyweight champions of the modern era, and he very publicly broke away from the UFC specifically to seek out bigger challenges for (MUCH) Bigger money, and a larger international audience, and felt confident in doing so because he is, and always was, a pure western boxer with nothing but crash courses in dirty striking and grappling; and with that skill set, left MMA with scorched earth, a fill-in titleholder who'd avoided Ngannou, and an assortment of midgets known to nobody but hardcore MMA kids. Ngannou brought every single technique that he performs exceptionally in MMA (his boxing) into his career pinnacle payday, and was smashed to smithereens in front og over 60 million viewers.

No world class, semi-near prime amateur or pro boxer has ever sought a new career in MMA, as the monitary disparity would liken that to quitting your appointment as chief surgeon in order to mop the floors.
But, very old and/or low level guys like Anderson Silva, Mirko Filipovic, Ray Mercer, Jeremy Williams, LaVerne Clark, Vitor Belfort, Kit Cope, Butterbean Esch, Marcus Davis, Holly Holm, James Warring, Alexander Ustinov, Jens Pulver and Carl Noons were successful invaders whose boxing base served them well in Mixed Martial Arts.

2. Maybe not. People fall for every faint just like a MMA champ, regarding the news of the day. Beating Franklin, Helenius, Wallin and the MMA world has meaning, but is VERY different, and a very easy task, than contending with real champions like Wilder and Fury of the big time. I think that faint prone fans read WAY too much into Wilder taking a tricky fight (Parker) after years of inactivity, and Fury very obviously treating Ngannou like a clown. Both can come back strong, just like Joshua had to.

3. If anyone thinks this high level series of wins hasn't "set up great things for AJ", just keep watching. Hundreds of millions awaiting.

4. No boxing background for Ngannou???? Fella, that's ALL he's got. He's never wrestled, doesn't hold a belt in anything. He's what any hard hitting heavyweight boxer would be with a year's worth of cross training. MMA only types HATE hearing that, but that's the biography. In sport fighting as with any business, money talks and B.S. walks! The ones payi g the most get most of the natural fighter talen and from there it's just training to the rules.

5. A lean, prepared and enthusiastic fighter is a different animal than one prepared to go in with a harmless opponent and clown his way to putting on a good show. This is more true of Tyson Fury than it is for anyone else I can think of at the moment.
Fury vs Usyk is a pick em' fight, and that's ONLY if Fury is beginning his decline.
The guy who Aced Klitschko, overcame Wilder in a best of three and blew away Dillian Whyte like he was nothing will comprehensively defeat Oleksandr Usyk.

....In my humble opinion.

This is a truly GREAT era in heavyweight boxing.
Don't miss it!!

[TMLT87]

left MMA with scorched earth, a fill-in titleholder who'd avoided Ngannou, and an assortment of midgets known to nobody but hardcore MMA kids.

He was never a huge star in the UFC though. He main evented 3 PPVs in 6+ years in a company with monthly PPV.

The UFC is a little weak on starpower right now but its not like Ngannou was a big difference maker in that.

No boxing background for Ngannou???? Fella, that's ALL he's got. He's never wrestled, doesn't hold a belt in anything.

He was nearly 8 years into his MMA career when he became champion, got his first title shot years earlier and failed that time largely due to his lack of wrestling defence, which was clearly improved when he eventually did win the title. His last UFC fight and only ever title defence was him using wrestling because he found himself in a rare instance of being outstruck too. So its fair to say he trained wrestling plenty, especially once he got to a certain point where he knew his striking game was more dangerous than everyone elses and his biggest weakness would be getting taken down.