Efe Ajagba Wins Top Rank Debut But Is Still A Million Miles Away From A Fight With Anthony Joshua
Earlier this week, unbeaten heavyweight prospect/contender Efe Ajagba called for a fight with WBA/IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. Last night, in his Top Rank debut, Ajagba laboured to a less than impressive points win over Jonathon Rice in Las Vegas. It’s easy to see that Ajabga is basically a million miles away from good enough to be able to compete with AJ.
Basing things on last night’s showing by the 26 year old, the tall and athletic Nigerian needs something like a dozen more fights at least before being capable of going in with the elite. It’s a good thing then that Ajagba has time on his side at age 26. Now 14-0(11), Ajagba had to make do with a wide decision win in the Rice fight – coming out victorious by scores of 99-91, 99-91 and 98-92. But it should be kept in mind how Rice is a fighter who has been stopped on two occasions. Should Ejagba have gotten Rice out of there, or is it too harsh to criticise him for not getting the KO or stoppage?
Ajagba did hurt his right hand during last night’s fight and this may well have affected his ability at making the kind of statement he wanted to make. But bottom line, fans like to see KO’s, from the heavyweights in particular. There is still much to like about Ajagba, but last night he was caught with too many punches and he seemed to run out of ideas. Credit to Rice, though, a tough guy.
It kind of looks silly now, however, how Ajagba called out Joshua a few days back:
“Skill would beat Joshua, not power. Me and Joshua both have the power, but skills control the power,” Ajagba said to Sky Sports. “I have more skills.”
Not judging by last night’s less than scintillating performance, he doesn’t. Ajagba won’t get a shot at AJ in 2021, maybe not in 2022, and at his current state of progress, that’s good for him. Ajagba has quite a long ways to go.
