Senior writers Chris Mannix and Greg Bishop are weighing in on whether Franics Ngannou can achieve stardom and titles in the boxing ring.
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00:00 It's a good chance he finishes his boxing career with zero wins.
00:03 He will have gotten more out of zero wins than anyone in the history of combat sports.
00:09 Anyone.
00:10 Chris Maddox alongside Greg Bishop and Greg Francis Nganu is returning to combat sports
00:21 in March, yet the former UFC champion is not getting back into the cage.
00:26 For the second time in as many fights, Nganu will participate in a boxing match, this time
00:32 against Anthony Joshua.
00:34 Nganu had a much better than expected showing against Tyson Fury back in October.
00:40 Now he gets the next biggest name in the heavyweight division, an Anthony Joshua.
00:45 We know that Nganu is a big time MMA star.
00:49 The question is, can Francis Nganu become a big time boxing star?
00:54 Yeah, I think it's a fascinating question and I would start by answering it with, you
00:59 know, I've talked to Freddie Roach and other trainers about the heavyweight division specifically
01:04 and I think that that's probably the easiest one to cross over in and it's really not easy
01:10 at all, but it comes down a lot more to power.
01:13 There's less technical proficiency in most of the guys.
01:16 You know, you saw him drop Tyson Fury and we saw that he has power.
01:21 So I would say it's definitely more possible than it normally would be and I'm pretty curious
01:27 to see how that one works out.
01:28 I want to start by giving Francis Nganu his props for how he performed against Tyson Fury.
01:34 I was among the many people that thought he was just going to get wiped out.
01:38 Mostly because when we have seen MMA fighters get into a boxing ring, they have gotten wiped
01:46 out.
01:46 Whether it's Conor McGregor, Nate Diaz, it just always ends badly for the boxer.
01:52 For Francis Nganu, it did not.
01:54 He came into that fight well prepared.
01:56 He came into that fight in great shape.
01:58 He showed way more boxing ability than I thought he could possibly possess and gave Tyson Fury
02:05 all he could handle over 10 rounds of that fight.
02:08 All that being said, I still think that was an aberration.
02:14 I think that was a perfect storm.
02:16 I think Francis Nganu was prepared, motivated and ready for that fight against Tyson Fury.
02:22 Whereas I think Fury was unprepared, unmotivated and probably read a lot of his press clippings
02:28 thinking he was just going to roll over this guy, collect a big paycheck in Saudi Arabia
02:32 and then move on to the big fight against Alexander Usyk a little bit later in the year.
02:37 I think the circumstances are different now.
02:39 He's going up against Anthony Joshua who is not Tyson Fury.
02:43 Not to say he's better than Tyson Fury, but he's a different kind of fighter than Tyson Fury.
02:48 Anthony Joshua is a heavy-handed guy.
02:51 Anthony Joshua can level you with a big right hand.
02:54 That's not Tyson Fury's game.
02:55 Tyson Fury's game is more box and then hit you.
02:59 Anthony Joshua has hit you and then hit you again with power shots.
03:03 So this is the kind of fight that I think we're more likely to see a traditional outcome
03:09 between MMA fighter and boxer.
03:11 Because yeah, Nganou is still dangerous with both hands.
03:15 He knocked Fury down with the left hand.
03:16 So he's got the left hand and he's still got the right hand.
03:19 But against Anthony Joshua, who fought three times in 2023,
03:23 who's coming off his best win probably in years with the knockout win over Otto Wallen,
03:28 who's got a great team in his corner led by Ben Davison.
03:32 This to me feels like the fight that Francis Nganou, the novice boxer, is exposed.
03:40 So no, that's a long way of saying I do not believe that Francis Nganou can become a big-time
03:46 boxing star.
03:47 Yeah, and I think one thing to consider is, you know, you mentioned some of the MMA guys
03:51 that have crossed over and lost and not looked that great in a boxing ring.
03:55 And I think one of the common threads there has been they always look gassed.
04:00 You know, I'm thinking McGregor versus Floyd Mayweather.
04:02 And just the endurance part of it, because the sports are different in terms of number
04:07 of rounds and the amount of time you're really in the ring and moving and sweating and everything
04:12 else.
04:13 And so I would say on one hand, Francis looked like he had that endurance against Tyson Fury.
04:20 On the other, you know, it seems to be something that takes a little bit of time to build up.
04:24 And so I think that would be one thing to watch in terms of if we're going to see him
04:30 win another one.
04:31 Yeah, well, there's no downside for MMA guys to come over.
04:35 You know, Conor McGregor didn't lose a thing in the Mayweather loss.
04:38 Nate Diaz really hasn't lost a thing from the Jake Paul loss.
04:42 Dylan Dennis kind of lost something, but I don't know what Dylan Dennis was even coming
04:46 into that fight against Logan Paul.
04:48 Francis Ngannou, even if he goes 0-3 in the boxing ring, is still going to be able to
04:54 return to the cage as Francis Ngannou, former heavyweight champion.
04:57 He's just going to have a much healthier bank account in the aftermath of that.
05:02 Greg Bishop, appreciate your time, man.
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