By Charles Brun: Francis Ngannou is in a position to potentially create the biggest upset in heavyweight history if he’s able to get to Tyson Fury’s chin and finish the job that Deontay Wilder started.
We don’t Fury will use rough-house tactics to bend the rules against Ngannou like he did in the second Wilder fight, in which got away with murder by hitting him repeatedly with rabbit punches & low blows to incapacitate him to score a knockout.
As long as Team Ngannou has had their eyes open and watched Fury’s past fights with Wilder, they should be ready if Tyson throws the Marquees of Queensberry rules out the window and goes whole hog with the cheating.
Ngannou is obviously as slow as a herd of tortoises, but he packs a punch, and if he gets to Fury’s compromised chin, he can drop him. If the big 6’4″ ex-UFC champ can land one of his big punches on Fury, he can stop him.
If Ngannou has been working on his inside game in how to throw short punches while being held, he can take advantage of Fury’s tendency to maul.
Since Fury teamed up with American trainer Sugarhill Steward, he’s become a mauler type of fighter, the style that low-level journeymen use, and surprisingly, he’s been effective using that approach.
The reason for that is the 270+ lb Fury’s huge weight advantage over his opponents, and also, his opposition has been limited. He’s only had three or four fights since adding Sugarhill to his team, and apart from Wilder, he’s faced bottom-level heavyweights consisting of these three:
Derek Chisora
Dillian Whyte
Otto Wallin
Those are not top-ten-level fighters in the true sense, and Fury’s management has done a good job of matching him against the right guys while steering clear of fighters that could easily neutralize the simplistic Sugarhill mauling style he uses to lean, wrestle & club his way to victory.
Ngannou can make history
“I think if he wins this, I think he creates the biggest heavyweight shock ever in the history of heavyweight combat sports,” said Gareth A. Davies to Boxing Social about the Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou fight in Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
“If you ask me how [Ngannou wins]. He’s got to go hard, throw a lot of punches in the first ten minutes of the fight, and look to catch Fury. His entire team is totally focused.
“John is here. All big guys. It’s like an international rugby team. I think he’ll keep Ngannou behind the jab and start to march forward to get on his chest and throw his hands. We might have a bit of drama in those first three rounds.
Now, the question is whether the referee will stop the fight or stand over Fury while unconscious on the canvas, giving a count to him. We saw that happen in Fury’s first fight with Wilder.
If you’re Ngannou, you might have to knock Fury down multiple times in this fight to guarantee he gets credit for a stoppage. In other words, the fight might not be stopped by knocking Fury out cold like Wilder did.
In the first Fury-Wilder fight, the referee clearly should have stopped the fight on the spot because Fury was out cold, but instead, he stood over him and gave him a count in an odd-looking 20th-century type of thing.
You don’t see referees giving counts to unconscious fighters in this era of boxing, yet the referee for the first Fury vs. Wilder fight did that with Tyson when he was knocked cold in the twelfth.
Some fans believe Fury was given special treatment due to his popularity and that if it was Wilder who was dropped similarly, the ref would have waved it off immediately, given how risky it is health-wise to have valuable seconds wasted when a fighter is unconscious.
Since that bad experience, Fury has seemingly been afraid to get back in there with world-class opposition, ruining negotiations with Oleksandr Usyk & Anthony Joshua and showing zero interest in wanting to defend his WBC title against the young killers Arslanbek Makhmudov & Jared Anderson.
“If Ngannou lands, Fury might get wobbled, but I don’t think Fury is going to go toe-to-toe with him because that’s going to give Francis his biggest opportunity in the fight, and my feeling is, he’ll demoralize Francis and stop him in the fourth or fifth because I think he’ll get tired in there.
“MMA is a different sport. I know they’ve worked on his fitness for this. It’s really crucial because if Francis Ngannou goes twelve rounds with Tyson Fury, his stock rises. He might get Joshua next. He might get Wilder next.
“They love him here clearly. They want to invest in him,” said Gareth about the 37-year-old Ngannou. “The narrative race of his life is extraordinary. The story, the journey. From nothing,” said Davies about Francis having come from a poor background.
“He’s such an idol for the children in Cameroon. The people can see what big things Francis has done. They’re really inspiring a generation. All eyes are on him for what he can do,” said Gareth.
Tyson Fury = massive favorite
“That’s the double-edged sword Tyson Fury is facing in this fight. In a way, it’s an advantage to Ngannou,” said Gareth. “Fury is such a massive favorite. I’m not saying he’s going to underestimate Francis Ngannou.
“He knows what a big favorite he is. He knows he’s expected to win. He knows he’s got the skills set, and he knows he’s the teacher in there in terms of boxing,” said Gareth about Fury. “There’s all that jeopardy on Tyson Fury’s shoulders.
“We know Tyson switches on for these big occasions. I don’t think he’ll put a foot wrong. I don’t think he can afford to. If you’re alluding to the fact that he’s going to make it on December 23rd. If he comes out unscathed, that’s what I’m hearing behind the scenes.
“There is a genuine appetite for him to have a few days off, go back into camp, and make this fight [with Usyk].
“When I heard that he went to a dark room for four days, I was thinking, ‘I wouldn’t mind trying that,'” said Gareth about Anthony Joshua. “Who wouldn’t mind trying that? That’s a long time. All those hours in the dark,” said Davies.
Tyson missing out on opportunity
“I’ve liked everything that I’ve heard from Anthony Joshua recently,” Gareth said. “Even to the point where he said, ‘I’d fight on the undercard of Fury & Usyk.’ What does that lead to? That leads to a fight where Fury fights Joshua if he wins.
“With a promoter’s hat on. Keep Joshua winning until Fury’s had his fight with Usyk, and then we get the fight that we all want to see in this generation.
“I’d rather see Joshua get a couple of wins against the kind of opponents he’s been facing the last six or seven months than face Wilder, get knocked out, and where does he come to from there? I think Wilder’s a difficult opponent for anyone. Wilder is a difficult opponent for Usyk as well.
“I love the idea of him being on the undercard. I don’t think it’ll be Wilder-Joshua. That would be one of the biggest cards we’ve seen in a long time. The investment in heavyweight boxing in Saudi Arabia right now will hopefully bring together those five or six fights that we need to see in this generation,” said Davies.
Undercard heavyweight could steal the show
“Obviously, this is a showpiece, a crossover fight,” said Gareth. “Two tribes are going to war, and then afterward, potentially Joshua & Fury, Joshua & Usyk again, maybe, and Wilder & Usyk. It would complete the era, and I love the fact that on this card, you’ve got Arslanbek Makhmudov, who is unbeaten.
“Yes, he’s not the youngest heavyweight. He’s built like a Tank, a giant Russian, as good as you like, undefeated, and most of his wins have been by knockout. He’s a very skilled boxer with a great amateur pedigree.
“There’s a feel of ignition around this whole. There is something big going on around here. It’s a paradigm shift in the heavyweight division.
“Fury’s not ducking Usyk. Ego, money, timing, that’s what brings the biggest fights together. They’ve taken the decision to do that. I didn’t have the opinion that Fury-Usyk wasn’t going to happen. The timing wasn’t right.
“I also know behind the scenes that Usyk didn’t want that fight at Wembley on April 29th because it didn’t work for him. They’re all waiting for this money and this event and the fact that this is the pinnacle of their lives in athletic terms and commercial terms,” said Gareth.
