Promoter Eddie Hearn claims Anthony Joshua will now beat Oleksandr Usyk with the form he showed last Friday night, crushing MMA fighter Francis Ngannou in a crossover fight in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
No one was fooled by what they saw last night. If that fight happens, Joshua still loses to Usyk because he has his number.
Usyk would have picked off the right hands that Joshua was clobbering the rookie Ngannou with, and he would have boxed AJ’s ears off like he did in their two previous fights.
Hopefully, Joshua wouldn’t go into a meltdown again, grab Usyk’s belts, and toss them out of the ring again like we saw after their second fight.
Despite the two-time former heavyweight champion Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs) going up against a 0-1 novice, Ngannou, in a fight that arguably should have never been sanctioned in the first place, Hearn says the victory proved that AJ is “the baddest man on the planet.”
A Sham of a Fight
That’s obviously a bit much to believe. Hearn chooses a guy from another sport to match Joshua against and then stands up and crows like a rooster about it after AJ is victorious. What did Hearn expect to happen when he used Ngannou as Joshua’s opponent rather than a real boxer?
Talk about pulling the wool over the public’s eyes. You’ve got to be pretty gullible not to see this entire fight as nothing but a sham that never had a chance to be competitive in the real sense unless Joshua’s historically fragile chin betrayed him again.
Luckily for Joshua, he clipped Ngannou before he had the opportunity to land one of his own big shots, but it was still a sick mismatch from the moment the fight was inked.
Hearn’s Tall Tales
“This is a guy who Tyson Fury said, ‘I hit him with massive shots, and I couldn’t budge him.’ You saw what happen when you go in with a sharp puncher,” said promoter Eddie Hearn said to the MMA Junkie channel, reacting to Anthony Joshua’s win over Francis Ngannou.
“Right now, AJ is the best heavyweight on the planet. There’s no question about it. He’s got the confidence back, he’s hitting harder than ever, but now he’s a well-rounded fighter with defense and footwork. There’s no one that beats him,” said Hearn.
The comment from Eddie is completely laughable, considering the lesser opposition than the slick-talking Hearn has matched Joshua against. How in the world can Joshua be considered the “best heavyweight on the planet” after beating this gang of four:
– Francis Ngannou
– Otto Wallin
– Robert Helenious
– Jermaine Franklin
Fans See Through the Hype
Hearn can brag all he wants, but the public isn’t blooming idiots. They understand what the Joshua-Ngannou fight was: This was just Eddie setting up what he hopes will be a massive loot-grabbing clash between Joshua and Fury if he’s victorious against Usyk.
“That was a massive fight for him tonight with lots of pressure. We did it against Otto Wallin,” said Hearn. “He [Fury] struggled against Otto Wallin. AJ destroyed him; it was a mismatch. He struggled against Francis Ngannou. AJ destroyed him; it was a mismatch.
“It’s not necessarily about comparing the two, but it’s nice. It doesn’t matter. He just beats Tyson Fury and he beats Oleksandr Usyk in this form as well, but we got to see those two fight [on May 18th. We got to hope that Tyson Fury can win against Usyk, and then you set up probably the biggest fight of all time,” said Hearn.
This win for Joshua may have given him credibility with his flock, but it doesn’t provide him the magical Superman powers to defeat Usyk. The talented Ukrainian will continue to be a nightmare for him, no matter how many cans Hearn sets him up with, and he’d better hope that Fury takes care of him.
