Im intrigued because AJ retreats back into his shelf against a big puncher. So if Francis can land something big...
The RedCafe Boxing Thread
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Because it's once again diverting boxing and the heavyweight division. Ngannou probably should have won the fight against Fury so what will happen this time if it's that close? It's just making it a bit of a farce as usual which is why people get so fecking annoyed at the division.
Yeah I get that. I think I gave up with the heavyweight division after Fury Ngannou. I just accept it’s a freakshow for entertainment now where the results don’t matter. And this has a bit of entertainment value
Hard fight to call:
Pretty certain N'Gannou wins an outright firefight so the onus is on Joshua to avoid that and fight as long and patiently as he can.
Joshua's head movement is always a bone of contention for me and leaves me to believe if one is to be 'unexpectedly' caught, it'll be him after not sorting the aforementioned out in time.
N'Gannou is faster and more explosive and the more natural mover as a fighter in general (for me), and I think if Joshua's infamous drops in concentration and stamina are at play, he'll get caught in later middle rounds.
If he can keep N'Gannou on the outside on the end of his jab then I think it'll be a rather comfortable points victory.
With the tendencies of both, I think N'Gannou is more likely to catch him either in a fire fight or through one of those momentary lapses than Joshua is to keep him out and control the vast majority of the fight.
- Is Joshua back-back to the fighter who believed in himself pre-Ruiz? The fighter who believed in his power and physical presence?
- How will N’Gannou approach a big hitter? He has been gun-shy in the past vs. Derrick Lewis (a notoriously powerful K.O artist in MMA).
- Leading on from the above: really big punchers rarely produce great fights against one another. Could be a whole night of pawing tentatively from behind the jab for the both of them.
Pretty certain N'Gannou wins an outright firefight so the onus is on Joshua to avoid that and fight as long and patiently as he can.
Joshua's head movement is always a bone of contention for me and leaves me to believe if one is to be 'unexpectedly' caught, it'll be him after not sorting the aforementioned out in time.
N'Gannou is faster and more explosive and the more natural mover as a fighter in general (for me), and I think if Joshua's infamous drops in concentration and stamina are at play, he'll get caught in later middle rounds.
If he can keep N'Gannou on the outside on the end of his jab then I think it'll be a rather comfortable points victory.
With the tendencies of both, I think N'Gannou is more likely to catch him either in a fire fight or through one of those momentary lapses than Joshua is to keep him out and control the vast majority of the fight.
Why would it be annoying if it’s close? Ngannou came out with so much credit against Fury and if he can produce something similar against AJ then surely he belongs in heavyweight boxing?
It’s definitely a money fight, but I can see the logic. Wilder lost, Fury is fighting Usyk, he’s definitely waiting for the IBF to become vacant before fighting Hrgovic. You could say Zhang, but I can understand striking while the iron is hot with Ngannou. It’s not a big issue if he’s going to fight three times a year now.
How anyone can defend Hearn or Joshua these days is beyond me.
Hearn really is the master of manipulation when it comes to the common idiot.
It won’t be close. If AJ prepares properly he will easily win. It’s definitely an interesting fight but mainly because Fury didn’t take the first one seriously, which creates a false sense of jeapordy for AJ.
Fury is the same to be fair but it's a shit show the heavyweight division I hope Usyk takes all the belts
Because if it's close they're not going to let Ngannou win like the Fury fight.
Hopefully Francis' performance vs Fury wasn't just a one off, as this will be very intriguing. The way he kept coming forward and showed decent hand speed makes me think he could do something here. AJ won't want to be fighting on the back foot, so he'll have to try to assert himself early to keep Ngannou humble.
I don’t think that’s especially new or a conspiracy because they don’t want the MMA guy to win. It’s always been a cliche that the champion will get the benefit of the doubt in close fights. Theres loads of examples throughout boxing where the champion has come away with a dodgy points win.
Who knows. Despite Fury looking crap, Ngannou had a bit of the Wilder fear factor about him.
It's better for the Saudi market that Fury and Joshua stay king.
Wilder losing really fecked for both of them. Now Joshua has to stay busy for the winner of Fury / Usyk
Was he coming forward? From what I remember he waited patiently for the whole fight and made Fury initiate the action, which is what caused Fury so much trouble. He was quite sharp when Fury did engage but he didn’t press the action for sure.
I'm not a Fury fan but despite his dire performance he won that fight. It was certainly not a robbery.
Who would you have liked Joshua to fight next? Hrgovic was the only other option at this stage. It's not like the guy has been fighting bums. It was meant to be Wilder, now.
If Fury beats Usyk, and Joshua wins then it's all lining up for the biggest british fight ever this summer. It's boxing, though, so it probably won't happen.
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Not that we didn’t already know, but they’re all at it now (fighters & promoters); most aren’t even denying it’s about maximising earnings now and the Saudi money isn’t going to help. I get it’s a short lived & dangerous career but don’t try and pretend you’re interested in meaningful fights.
Eddie Hearn openly laughed at the Ngannou fight and said Joshua wasn’t interested and now suddenly sees it as legit.
Someone like Wilder looks shot to pieces but why would he retire when they’ll keep chucking millions at him?
Then you’ve got Frank Warren defending the non-atmosphere in the middle-east; we’re not deaf, just saying ‘you weren’t there’ isn’t a defence.
Eddie Hearn openly laughed at the Ngannou fight and said Joshua wasn’t interested and now suddenly sees it as legit.
Someone like Wilder looks shot to pieces but why would he retire when they’ll keep chucking millions at him?
Then you’ve got Frank Warren defending the non-atmosphere in the middle-east; we’re not deaf, just saying ‘you weren’t there’ isn’t a defence.
Debatable he won. It could have gone either way.
It might just be my memory, but he didn't let Fury take the centre of the ring for large periods of the fight. He'd fire back in each exchange and then tried to back Fury up to the ropes. He was quite aggressive and I think that's what could put Joshua into trouble. As he showed vs Fury, he won't by physically dominated either.I'm not sure sure it will be close.
He did well against Fury who took the fight lightly and didn't prepared well enough. I'd expect AJ to take it very seriously after seeing that what happened vs Fury and I'd be interested to see if he gets easily beaten or if someone can just rock up from MMA, albeit with some boxing experience, and trouble the top guys.
Future fights looks set to be held at the new Kingdom Arena, which houses around 25k. All they need to do now is fly in some pissed/coked-up Brits and they'll have the total package.
I must be consistent and say that it is sickening how the saudi's are getting more and more involved into various sports. Shameful of already rich folks taking the money.
Worked out perfect for Eddie
I think the casual boxing fan has changed now, and that’s how they can get away with making literally any fight knowing it will sell to the social media generation. They’re not bothered whether the average fan can afford or have access as long as CR7 & Conor McGregor are ringside.
I spent 2 decades going to fights at nearly all uk arenas and have done a few overseas trips too but much like football, the sport has gone now
Ahh yeah, he definitely held centre ring, but he just seemed to wait and wait and wait until Fury made a move. Smart really, and he was sharp enough to cause Fury all sorts of problems when he did engage.
Agree it could be a fascinating match up with Joshua if he can remain awkward and dangerous with counters.
This.
Hrgovic fight doesn't make sense without the IBF on the line.
Parker rematch there isn't much interest considering AJ dominated him first time round.
Zhang would be good but again no belt and isn't a bigger fight than Ngannou.
It's the logical next step. People were rightly a bit pissed about Fury-Ngannou because it A) came at a time when Fury CLEARLY had a better option which was to fight Usyk for undisputed and B) Ngannou had zero boxing experience at the time and it was viewed as a complete mismatch.
Now that he's fought Fury and proved he can compete with the best in the world on his day, it makes it both a much more reasonable fight and Ngannou is by some distance the biggest draw he could face. There's no clear option out there that this is getting in the way of for AJ, so why not?
I imagine it plays out with AJ comfortably beating Ngannou and then Hearn and the media playing it up like it’s the greatest victory ever because Fury struggled against him. Despite lackluster performances and opponents AJ is more than likely getting the winner of Fury/Usyk. Hopefully Fury comes through Usyk and 2024 is finally the year we get to see AJ/Fury, which I imagine is the one fight that will motivate both more than any other fight. The money is there to make it happen now, just a shame that if it happens it won’t be in the UK at Wembley like the fans actually want.
I mean, is this an issue? He's still clearly the #3 HW in the world until somebody stakes a real claim otherwise.
Franklin was a lacklustre performance granted, Helenius a poor opponent but not their fault Dilian Whyte popped again for PEDs on fight week.
But Wallin was a very solid opponent and a very good performance. If he beats Ngannou well, that should be considered another decent win considering his showing against Fury.
That's up-and-coming British light-heavyweight Dan Azeez. I love the idea of a whole group of good fighters conspiring on how to get through a sparring session with Beterbiev
. Looking forward to seeing him in action at the weekend, although at his age I do have the nagging sense that he'll have went downhill rapidly before he gets the chance to fight the likes of Bivol and Canelo. Hopefully I'm wrong.Just see on bbc sport callum smith reckons his best beats beterbiev yeah good luck with that.
This is an interesting fight, I didn't really rate Callum at super middle but he does look a superior athlete at 175. Teddy Atlas made a good point that the equaliser for anyone fighting Beterbiev at this point in his career is his age, will there be someone to expose the father time reality. Yarde put up a decent fight but was ultimately overrun down the stretch.
I think a disciplined performance could see Smith have success but if he becomes fatigued, leaning against the ropes or doesn't maintain range it will be the same conclusion with him getting mauled with short sharp punches on the inside. His conditioning is most important factor.
Anyone seeing this Mbilli vs Murdock fight, god damn...
Beterbiev's power is quite something. He's barely out of third gear and yet walking through Callum Smith, who is massive at the weight.
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Finally we might get the bivol Vs beterbiev fight and then maybe one last against that mexican cheat.
BeterBEAST
There is no greater task than beating Beterbiev/Inoue in boxing right now in my opinion.
He has underrated boxing ability, monstrous power and a granite chin, it will be interesting to see if Bivols amazing boxing skills can overcome the pressure and power of Beterbiev, it’s one of the best fights in boxing to be made.
He has underrated boxing ability, monstrous power and a granite chin, it will be interesting to see if Bivols amazing boxing skills can overcome the pressure and power of Beterbiev, it’s one of the best fights in boxing to be made.
It must be soul destroying facing Beterbiev. Smith did ok for the first couple of rounds but looked a bit stiff and fell short with his shots. Beterbiev is a wrecking ball though and more skilful than he looks at first glance.
The Bivol fight has to happen.
The Bivol fight has to happen.
I think beating Crawford is a more impossible task, but yeah Beterbiev/Inoue definitely a more daunting/dangerous task.
Fans in Liverpool booing both the USA and UK anthems at the Jonas/Mayer fight
Yeah, I'm not having that Jonas won that fight.