Francis Ngannou is two fights away from becoming undisputed heavyweight champion in his fourth pro fight if he pulls off this historic feat.
First, Ngannou has former world champion Anthony Joshua as his first hurdle on March 8th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Joshua (27-3, 24 KOs) is arguably the easier job for the former UFC champion Ngannou because he’s chinny, as he mentioned today at their kickoff press conference.
The difficult part for Ngannou would be to defeat the winner of the February 17th fight between heavyweight champions Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk.
Those two are the creme de la cream in of division, and it’s going to take a great performance from Ngannou to beat either of them.
Ngannou’s Shortcut to History
“For Ngannou to fight for the undisputed championship in his third fight, it could be a rematch with Fury. He could become undisputed heavyweight champion,” said Eddie Hearn to TNT Sports Boxing about Francis Ngannou potentially beating Anthony Joshua and the winner of the Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk fight on February 17th to become the undisputed champion in just his third pro fight.
AJ’s promoter, Hearn, seems fixated on him capturing the undisputed championship, dreaming of him collecting all the belt. It clearly means a lot to Hearn to have Joshua become a world champion because it validates him in the eyes of fans, and if they view him as still top dog, financially, that helps keep him on top.
“For AJ, we’ve dreamed about that for so many years. I told AJ before the face-to-face, ‘Two wins, and you’re going to be the undisputed champion,’ and I believe he’s going to do it,” said Hearn.
Joshua-Two-Step Climb
“I believe he’s going to beat Ngannou, and I believe he’s going to beat Tyson Fury. I just say, February 17th, Oleksandr Usyk, I love you, but Tyson Fury, you’ve got to win this fight because AJ, once he goes through Ngannou, we’ve got to make it happen.”
You can bet that Hearn will be pulling every mind trick he’s got in his hat to try and throw Ngannou. It’ll probably be a waste of time for Hearn to try and throw Ngannou off because he’s going to try and take AJ’s head off on March 8th regardless of what Eddie says.
“I told AJ, ‘I’m getting excited for the undisputed.’ ‘Not, for me. March 8th is the one that’s in front of you.’ Frank said, ‘The jeopardy in this fight.’ There isn’t a huge amount, although now, there is to gain for this fight [Joshua vs. Ngannou] because you’re going to go into the undisputed, and I really like that,” Hearn said.
“I like that because leading into this fight, what is there to gain? Yes, you can do a better job than Tyson Fury [at beating Ngannou], but who really cares? We want a world heavyweight championship. We want a vision at the end of this story for AJ, and that vision is the undisputed,” said Hearn.
