Last Saturday, the sports world witnessed a historic boxing showdown as former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou made his highly-anticipated boxing debut. He squared off against the legendary Tyson Fury, widely regarded as one of the greatest boxers of our time. Despite the judges’ decision ultimately favouring Fury, the majority of fight fans and the media agreed that Ngannou’s performance should have earned him a victory by a margin of 1 or 2 rounds – and the reasons are apparent. Ngannou delivered a stunning knockdown of the undefeated WBC champion in the third round and continued to impress throughout the rest of the bout.
Notably, there’s a clip circulating X (Twitter) of Fury landing a clean elbow to Ngannou’s face during the fight, though knowing this and knowing the judges winner, you wouldn’t be able to tell when given the comparison of both fighters post-fight appearances seen below.
Eddie Hearn Reacts to the Result of the ‘Battle of the Baddest’
As per usual, when a significant combat sports event unfolds over the weekend, Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour is the place to be on a Monday. Eddie Hearn, a key proponent of the ‘Ngannou has no chance’ narrative, joined Helwani to dissect the weekend’s happenings. Hearn unequivocally concurred that ‘The Predator’ deserved to claim the victory by a two-round margin, offering due praise for the 37-year-old’s performance. Furthermore, Hearn took the opportunity to outline his vision for the landscape of heavyweight boxing in 2024.
“What you have to do if you’re Francis Ngannou now is, you have to rematch Tyson Fury, or you have to fight Anthony Joshua… If Usyk has to fight Fury, which I believe that he will. AJ against Francis Ngannou, and the winner fights the winner of the other fight. If Francis Ngannou beats Tyson Fury and beats Anthony Joshua, he should fight for the world heavyweight title in two fights. That way, you’re getting the credibility.”
On the thought of Ngannou boxing Joshua, Hearn had this to say about the potential magnitude and result of the event.
“Francis Ngannou against Anthony Joshua, perhaps in Africa, perhaps The Rumble in the Jungle 2, is one of the biggest fights in the history of the sport. And I promise you this. Respect to Francis, easy work for my man [Joshua].
Francis Ngannou on His Potential Opponents
Ngannou has made no secret of his distaste for the judge’s verdict on Saturday and has since taken to X (Twitter) to vent his frustration. Highlighting the illegal elbow Fury landed and the incompetence of the judge’s scorecards (seen below).
‘The Predator’ also joined Helwani on The MMA Hour to discuss what went down on Saturday. During the interview, when questioned about prospective opponents in the future, he entertained the idea of a potential clash with Deontay Wilder under the PFL banner.
“I think that’s a good idea. In fact, we have spoken about that. That has been in the discussions. So that’s something that can potentially happen. Nothing is set, but it’s been something coming to my attention, so that’s something that makes sense. He’s really serious about MMA.”
“It’s going to be a different beast for him. Unlike this time that I was the one experiencing the mountain, climbing the mountain. He’s going to be the one climbing the mountain because we watched this, we all watched the fight last, last Saturday.” [H/T to MMAFighting for the quotes]
While there are many potential opponents for the former UFC heavyweight champion, he made it clear to Helwani that he would choose a rematch with Tyson Fury over all of them. However, with Fury set to face Usyk next, it looks unlikely that Ngannou will get his rematch anytime soon. Watch the full episode of The MMA Hour below.
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
