By Adam Baskin: Trainer Malik Scott says talks have begun for a fight between Francis Ngannou and Deontay Wilder following his impressive performance last Saturday night against Tyson Fury.
It would be risky for the former WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (43-2-1, 42 KOs) to face the hard-punching Ngannou because he’s shown himself to have stamina problems & punch resistance issues.
Fury was able to wear Wilder down by leaning on him & roughing him up with rabbit punches, low blows & clubbing shots on the inside. Those tactics didn’t work for Fury against Ngannou.
Malik liked what he saw from Ngannou, who he notes showed a lot of poise & punching power against the WBC champ Fury in their non-title fight in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Scott says he felt Fury did enough to win the fight, but it was close in the end. He thinks Fury edged it out by using his jab to box in the second half of the contest after being dropped in the third round from a left hand by Ngannou.
Malik sees similarities between Ngannou & Daniel Dubois, as both guys are big & powerful. However, Ngannou is much more mentally poised than what Dubois showed in his knockout losses to Oleksandr Usyk & Joe Joyce. He appeared to mentally quit in both fights when the going got tough.
Ngannou isn’t going to quit in any fight, so Malik might need to re-think his comparison because the two have nothing in common other than both being big & powerful.
Communications underway
“We’re already in communications about it,” said Malik Scott to Fighthype about talks having started for a fight between Francis Ngannou & Deontay Wilder in the aftermath of last Saturday’s Tyson Fury clash in Saudi Arabia.
“He’s an option now, and we’re going to see where things go. Yeah, absolutely,” said Malik when asked if communications started in the last 24 hours for the Ngannou-Wilder fight.”
Hopefully, Wilder knows what he’s getting himself into before he undertakes this fight with Ngannou, because if he loses this fight, it’s game over. He can forget about getting that massive payday clash against Anthony Joshua in 2024.
“Me personally, I believe he’s willing to do good business,” said Malik. “I talked to Deontay about it. I believe he’s right there to be hit by Deontay. He’s mature and poised, and for a guy with no professional fights as a boxer, he’s still big and strong.
In my opinion, he’s very dangerous. He’s a high-risk fight for anybody. I believe him being that big, it puts him in line to be hit by Deontay with a bomb. We’ll write it up to get him out of there if the opportunity comes.
“I think Ngannou is a lot more dangerous than [Andy] Ruiz. Yeah, absolutely, from what I saw last night with what he showcased. He showed patience, he showed punching power,” said Malik about what he saw in Ngannou’s performance against Fury that makes him think he’s more of a threat than the highly ranked top five contender Andy Ruiz.”
Ngannou showed patience
“The patience is what I’m big on. I’m very, very, very wary of guys that punch extremely hard, and they’re patient with their power,” said Scott. “That’s serious stuff for me, and he’s very disciplined. I’ve always said that Andy’s kryptonite is someone that is disciplined, and they can beat him.
Ngannou is mentally equipped for fighting, so he doesn’t get stressed, and he has excellent punch resistance, and cardio is good. Deontay would have a lot of problems with Ngannou if he can’t get him out in the first six rounds.
“You don’t have to be disciplined your whole life. Just for the fragment of time that the fight is scheduled,” said Malik. “Think about it. Anthony Joshua wasn’t disciplined with him the first time he fought him [Ruiz]. He traded with him, and he acted like he didn’t know who Andy was, and it cost him. He got caught while he was punching.
“Ngannou fought Tyson Fury in a very disciplined type style. He wasn’t overreaching, which I expected because of his novice ways, coming from the MMA to the boxing world. I expected him to overreach more, and I expected him to be a bit more wilder. I expected him to do a lot more clinching.
“He wasn’t even initiating the clinches. Fury was. At times, he would clinch, and even in the clinches, it was obvious who was the stronger. Not that it was shocking news, but at one time, he was throwing Fury around.
“Is Andy Ruiz a better boxer than Francis Ngannou? Yes. Is Andy more dangerous than Ngannou? Absolutely not.”
Ngannou has no respect for Fury’s power
“I would probably go with AJ,” said Malik when asked who he would pick in a fight between Ngannou and Anthony Joshua. “Francis isn’t coming over here beating anybody. Styles make fights, and Deontay would knock Francis out cold, I believe. AJ would beat Francis, but Francis would beat a lot of guys in the top 15, 20, I do.”
Anthony Joshua’s fragile chin, poor stamina, and his fragile mental state would put him at a huge risk against Ngannou, as he’s likely to fall apart in the early going.
The punch that Ngannou dropped Fury with in the third wound would likely result in Joshua being knocked out. If Joshua did survive that shot, Ngannou would finish him right away.
“It’s not like we have a landscape of full killers [at heavyweight in the top 15],” said Malik. “There are guys that he can beat that have been boxing way longer than him. We’re going to see him get right back in the gym and not treat this like a celebration where he constantly reads his news clips and constantly listens to fickle fans.
“Just get back to his craft and learning more and continue to spar guys to get better. Yeah, he’s a problem for anybody. The only guys I’m saying can beat him are extremely hard punchers.
“If you get in there and you ain’t got anything for him to respect you. Last night, he wasn’t really respecting Fury’s punching power. Fury hit him with some good shots, and he didn’t budge. Fury hit him with a good elbow, and he didn’t budge. If you didn’t see that in slow motion, you’d think it didn’t even happen because he just wasn’t budging.”
Fury didn’t show any power in the fight for Ngannou to be afraid of him, as he looked like a fat person who had lost a lot of weight and had no strength. The 35-year-old Fury doesn’t look like the same fighter that knocked out Wilder in their second fight.
“The punch intake is good, which has a lot to do with his determination and size and grit,” said Malik. “But I believe that takes a toll when you’re in there with dynamite type of punchers like Deontay Wilder. Anthony Joshua is extremely heavy-handed.
“I would automatically compare Francis with Daniel Dubois. If you compare styles and compare how Dubois fought Usyk, and you take Francis being patient with Usyk like that, he’ll get plucked up a little bit, but he’ll make Usyk feel his presence. He would. That’s just the type of man that he is.”
Malik’s comparison between Ngannou & Dubois sounds very uninformed to say the least. Dubois doesn’t look like he’s cut out for the sport. Ngannou isn’t someone that is going to fall to pieces and take a knee at the first hint to trouble, like we saw with Dubois.
“He doesn’t take no for an answer, and he’s a hell of an individual. A lot was shown of him last night, but what I was real big on was his character. I’m very big on was his character and patience. It just shows who he is as a person,” said Malik about Ngannou.
