Anthony Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, rejects the notion that his fight against Francis Ngannou is little more than a “stay busy” fight for him on March 8th and not one that is expected to be competitive.
Hearn maintains that the 37-year-old Ngannou (0-1), who is coming off a loss to an out-of-shape Tyson Fury last October, is a “dangerous fight” for AJ (27-3, 24 KOs).
Ngannou does hit hard, and he’s got the power to ruin Joshua’s plans for a fight against Fury, but some feel he shouldn’t be given this opportunity ahead of more deserving fighters in the sport.
The boxing public questions why Joshua is fighting a guy who was involved in what appeared to be a glorified sparring match against the 277-lb Fury instead of contenders like Zhilei Zhang, Filip Hrgovic, or Jared Anderson.
The Danger Lurking
“It’s a very dangerous fight on so many levels. Number one, you’re expected to beat Francis Ngannou,” said Eddie Hearn to Matchroom Boxing when asked if it’s unfair to call this fight against Francis Ngannou a ‘Stay busy fight’ for Anthony Joshua.
Any fight can be dangerous for the 34-year-old Joshua, but this isn’t one of them. Ngannou looked limited in his loss to Fury, and the reason he did well is because of Tyson’s conditioning and the fact that his game has become 90% mauling-oriented at this stage of his career.
Fury couldn’t maul Ngannou like he’d done against Deontay Wilder, Dereck Chisora, or Dillian Whyte because he’s built like a brick wall.
“Two, he hits very, very hard, and he’s very strong,” Hearn said about Ngannou. “So, what’s the reward in winning? Well, financially, we know it’s a good deal. Also, it’s putting the pressure on trying to get a shot at Tyson Fury.
“Hopefully, that undisputed championship because that’s the route that we’re on. I believe AJ is going to be the undisputed world champion. I said he’s going to beat Wallin, he’s going to beat Wilder, and he’s going to beat Fury.”
Joshua probably won’t be undisputed if he has to go through Usyk to earn that. Fury looks pretty old, weak, and soft now, so Joshua probably beats him, but Usyk is leagues better and always will.
“What we really need to focus on now is beating Ngannou. If he can beat Ngannou in style like he beat Wallin in style, that’ll make the demand continue to grow for AJ against Tyson Fury,” said Hearn.
Joshua beating Ngannou won’t create more interest in a fight with Fury. It might create interest from MMA fans in seeing Joshua and Fury fight, but it won’t cause boxing fans to want to see the contest even more just because AJ beat a non-boxer.
Fans know this is just a money grab and an excuse for Joshua to avoid Zhang, Hrgovic, and the other contenders AJ would have expected to fight after his third consecutive tune-up fight against Otto Wallin last December.
“He will have demolished two people that Tyson Fury really struggled against, and it’ll make people start to believe, like they are now, that AJ can win that fight. That’s in the future. Hopefully, Tyson Fury can do the business against Oleksandr Usyk, and hopefully AJ can deal with Ngannou,” said Hearn.
