Two-time World Boxing Organization title holder Anthony Joshua will go head to head against newbie, former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) heavyweight, Francis Ngannou on March 8 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Everyone in the boxing and UFC community is quite excited for this one. Why?
Ngannou’s story is quite intriguing, growing up in humble circumstances, the Cameroon-born Frenchman has had to fight – pun intended – for everything he has gotten so far, and has sometimes had to depend on sheer goodwill to even get his foot in the door.
The thing is, Ngannou actually made a name for himself…in UFC, a kickboxing competition, and became excellent at it, winning eight out of 13 of his matches before even the two-minute mark, which is quite impressive!
Ngannou was rightly recognized as the UFC Heavyweight Champion before he left to start his boxing career.
Joshua started his own boxing career the same time Ngannou started his UFC career. Since 2013 when he started, he has won several titles both as an amateur and as a professional. As a professional, he is a World heavyweight champion, a World Boxing Association champion, an International Boxing Federation champion, and a two-time World Boxing Organization champion. Joshua is something of a master of his craft.
The same cannot be said about Ngannou when it comes to this craft though. Why? Ngannou’s only boxing match so far has been against Tyson Fury, a match the Cameroonian lost, though just barely. Joshua? Oh he’s won 24 fights out of the 27 he’s fought so far.
What is more noteworthy though, is that Joshua has knocked out 88% of all his opponents, and 58% of his world heavyweight title opponents. This is quite an outrageous statistic.
So how does a newbie with only a boxing match under his belt – pun intended (again) – take on a multiple heavyweight champion? A better question is: can a newbie with just one match under his belt take on a multiple heavyweight champion?
The answer is not so straightforward. Ngannou may be new and inexperienced, but if there’s one thing his loss against Fury showed, it’s that the UFC heavyweight champion packs quite a heavy punch.
Fury landed 12 more punches than Ngannou in all, but Ngannou landed five more power punches than Fury, a feat that is particularly impressive considering the opponent.
Ngannou also has a slightly farther reach (83 inches) than Joshua (82 inches) despite being a full two inches shorter than the 34-year-old British boxer.
Everyone will be looking forward to this one with bated breath, partly to see how Ngannou holds up against an infinitely more experienced boxer again, but mainly to see if Joshua gets a relatively easy win, as expected.
