By Christian Schembri
It’s finally here, the great spectacle which figures to be Tyson Fury against Francis Ngannou is upon us.
This Saturday, a fight which was kept under wraps from the boxing public and was announced out of left field is happening. The consensus best heavyweight in boxing and current undefeated WBC champion, will face former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, for the unofficial title of ‘Baddest Man on the Planet’.
The fight has received a lot of promotion, and everyone involved in it is promising a great fight between two gigantic men, but whether that actually comes to pass is another matter.
Let’s start with the facts.
Tyson Fury is a giant of a man, scaling 6 foot 9 inches in height and regularly weighing over 270lbs in weight. He’s the current WBC champion and thought of by the majority of people in boxing as the best heavyweight on the planet.
He’s undefeated in 34 fights, with 33 wins and one draw. He’s faced and defeated world class boxers like Wladimir Klitsckho, Dillian Whyte and Deontay Wilder and has produced many master class performances in various fights.
On the other hand, we have Francis Ngannou, the ex UFC heavyweight champion who never lost his titles in the cage and has a string of brutal knockouts on the way to the title, winning it and defending it.
Who can forget the uppercut that almost decapitated Alistair Overeem?
Ngannou also holds the world record for punching power on the punching cube, surpassing other great punchers like Deontay Wilder.
This is where things get interesting though.
Francis Ngannou started training boxing but quickly moved towards MMA in the beginning stages of his career.
Although they are both combat sports, MMA and boxing couldn’t be any different. In MM
A, you can use every part of your body and you can grapple on the ground as well, so your fighting stance is much different than in boxing, your training is varied, and you cannot focus only on one skill set.
This fight is going to be held in a boxing ring with traditional boxing rules and standard 10 oz boxing gloves. Ngannou is a 0 fight novice in boxing, not even having had amateur boxing fights.
Compare that to Tyson Fury, who has been focusing on boxing since he was a little kid, one of the biggest heavyweights in history and arguably the most skilful, and you quickly start realising that this has the makings of a mismatch.
Yes, Ngannou has fighting experience, but in a completely different sport. If this was in the cage and he could use all his skillet (kicking, elbowing and grappling included), it would be a guaranteed win.
But his boxing ability by itself is very limited. He might be the hardest puncher ever in the UFC, but how will his power translate in the ring with gloves double the size of those he’s used to? How can you land your vaunted power punches when you don’t have the skills to cut the distance and get in a position where you can land effective punches?
Yes, Ngannou has a puncher’s chance. If he lands a proper one on Fury’s chin, Fury is going to feel it and he might end up on the floor. But Fury has great defence, great distance control and great recuperative powers, as seen in his fights with Cunningham and Wilder, in which he was dropped and came back to win by knockout in all of them, barring his first fight with Wilder which ended in a draw.
In my opinion, this fight will be very similar to the ones he had with Dillian Whyte and Derrick Chisora. He will box the ears off of Ngannou, pepper him with jabs and punches from all angles until he finds the opportunity to let rip with his power punches and stops Ngannou in the middle rounds.
Fury is too big, too skilled and too good.
It will be a good spectacle until it lasts, ending with Tyson Fury knocking out Francis Ngannou.
