Francis Ngannou is One Win Away From Fighting for the Undisputed Heavyweight Title

Sports Illustrated

Senior writers Chris Mannix and Greg Bishop are weighing in on whether Franics Ngannou can achieve stardom and titles in the boxing ring.

Transcript

00:00 It's a good chance he finishes his boxing career with zero wins.

00:03 He will have gotten more out of zero wins than anyone in the history of combat sports.

00:09 Anyone.

00:10 Chris Maddox alongside Greg Bishop and Greg Francis Nganu is returning to combat sports

00:21 in March, yet the former UFC champion is not getting back into the cage.

00:26 For the second time in as many fights, Nganu will participate in a boxing match, this time

00:32 against Anthony Joshua.

00:34 Nganu had a much better than expected showing against Tyson Fury back in October.

00:40 Now he gets the next biggest name in the heavyweight division, an Anthony Joshua.

00:45 We know that Nganu is a big time MMA star.

00:49 The question is, can Francis Nganu become a big time boxing star?

00:54 Yeah, I think it's a fascinating question and I would start by answering it with, you

00:59 know, I've talked to Freddie Roach and other trainers about the heavyweight division specifically

01:04 and I think that that's probably the easiest one to cross over in and it's really not easy

01:10 at all, but it comes down a lot more to power.

01:13 There's less technical proficiency in most of the guys.

01:16 You know, you saw him drop Tyson Fury and we saw that he has power.

01:21 So I would say it's definitely more possible than it normally would be and I'm pretty curious

01:27 to see how that one works out.

01:28 I want to start by giving Francis Nganu his props for how he performed against Tyson Fury.

01:34 I was among the many people that thought he was just going to get wiped out.

01:38 Mostly because when we have seen MMA fighters get into a boxing ring, they have gotten wiped

01:46 out.

01:46 Whether it's Conor McGregor, Nate Diaz, it just always ends badly for the boxer.

01:52 For Francis Nganu, it did not.

01:54 He came into that fight well prepared.

01:56 He came into that fight in great shape.

01:58 He showed way more boxing ability than I thought he could possibly possess and gave Tyson Fury

02:05 all he could handle over 10 rounds of that fight.

02:08 All that being said, I still think that was an aberration.

02:14 I think that was a perfect storm.

02:16 I think Francis Nganu was prepared, motivated and ready for that fight against Tyson Fury.

02:22 Whereas I think Fury was unprepared, unmotivated and probably read a lot of his press clippings

02:28 thinking he was just going to roll over this guy, collect a big paycheck in Saudi Arabia

02:32 and then move on to the big fight against Alexander Usyk a little bit later in the year.

02:37 I think the circumstances are different now.

02:39 He's going up against Anthony Joshua who is not Tyson Fury.

02:43 Not to say he's better than Tyson Fury, but he's a different kind of fighter than Tyson Fury.

02:48 Anthony Joshua is a heavy-handed guy.

02:51 Anthony Joshua can level you with a big right hand.

02:54 That's not Tyson Fury's game.

02:55 Tyson Fury's game is more box and then hit you.

02:59 Anthony Joshua has hit you and then hit you again with power shots.

03:03 So this is the kind of fight that I think we're more likely to see a traditional outcome

03:09 between MMA fighter and boxer.

03:11 Because yeah, Nganou is still dangerous with both hands.

03:15 He knocked Fury down with the left hand.

03:16 So he's got the left hand and he's still got the right hand.

03:19 But against Anthony Joshua, who fought three times in 2023,

03:23 who's coming off his best win probably in years with the knockout win over Otto Wallen,

03:28 who's got a great team in his corner led by Ben Davison.

03:32 This to me feels like the fight that Francis Nganou, the novice boxer, is exposed.

03:40 So no, that's a long way of saying I do not believe that Francis Nganou can become a big-time

03:46 boxing star.

03:47 Yeah, and I think one thing to consider is, you know, you mentioned some of the MMA guys

03:51 that have crossed over and lost and not looked that great in a boxing ring.

03:55 And I think one of the common threads there has been they always look gassed.

04:00 You know, I'm thinking McGregor versus Floyd Mayweather.

04:02 And just the endurance part of it, because the sports are different in terms of number

04:07 of rounds and the amount of time you're really in the ring and moving and sweating and everything

04:12 else.

04:13 And so I would say on one hand, Francis looked like he had that endurance against Tyson Fury.

04:20 On the other, you know, it seems to be something that takes a little bit of time to build up.

04:24 And so I think that would be one thing to watch in terms of if we're going to see him

04:30 win another one.

04:31 Yeah, well, there's no downside for MMA guys to come over.

04:35 You know, Conor McGregor didn't lose a thing in the Mayweather loss.

04:38 Nate Diaz really hasn't lost a thing from the Jake Paul loss.

04:42 Dylan Dennis kind of lost something, but I don't know what Dylan Dennis was even coming

04:46 into that fight against Logan Paul.

04:48 Francis Ngannou, even if he goes 0-3 in the boxing ring, is still going to be able to

04:54 return to the cage as Francis Ngannou, former heavyweight champion.

04:57 He's just going to have a much healthier bank account in the aftermath of that.

05:02 Greg Bishop, appreciate your time, man.

05:04 [MUSIC]

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