I can understand why MMA fighters would desire to step into the boxing ring. It is purely a money thing and well that is a strong motivator for most people. In MMA the fighters constantly complain about how the promotions take entirely too much of the "spoils of war" and after reading into it quite a lot I totally agree with them. We are yet to see the long-term effects of this but will likely find out in another 10 or 20 years. When boxers get KO'd on a regular basis they normally have the financial ability to deal with it in the future. Outside of a few outliers like McGregor and Jon Jones, most MMA fighters do not have a massive purse to sit on when the decide to or are forced to retire. I think we are going to see this as a massive problem in a decade or two as the brain damage becomes more and more evident. Then the lawsuits will fly.
That's another story though and for now I would like to take a look at the rather terrible display that took place between Francis Ngannau and Anthony Joshua in Saudi Arabia over the weekend.
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To label this fight as a one-sided affair is insulting to affairs, sides, and the number "1." This looked like someone who didn't know what the hell they were doing against someone who was merely toying with them in order to allow them to have some fun the likes of which a parent would wrestle with their child. At no point in time did Anthony Johnson look at all threatened and I'm relatively certain that he could have finished the fight in the first round where he did in fact score a knockdown.
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Francis did make some offensive moves but these were easily absorbed by A.J. who appeared calm and collected throughout all 5 minutes of the fight. Near the end of the 2nd round after yet another knockdown, I could see it in Ngannou's face that the lights were 3/4 of the way off already. When the ref let them re-engage, which he is obligated to do, it only took a few seconds for A.J. to turn Francis into a meme.
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A 270+ lb dude falling lifelessly to the mat is not something we often see but that is exactly what happened. A.J. "ragdolled" him and things got a little bit scary when he stayed down for a long time. He was even administered oxygen and there was some real concern on the part of the ring doctor as well as Ngannou's corner that something was seriously wrong with him. He did eventually return to his feet but how much long-lasting damage has potentially been caused by this abrupt jarring of the brain?
When this happened the internet was awash with comments of course and many of them were calling out Tyson Fury for potentially rigging his fight that he had with Francis in order to intentionally drag out the fight to a decision to propel Ngannou into the spotlight. If that was his intention it worked because Francis was immediately placed as one of the top-10 boxers in the world.
He certainly didn't look like a top boxer last night. What he looked like was an amateur who has no business being in the ring with someone of A.J.'s caliber. He looked just like almost every other MMA fighter who has decided to go where the money is and when this happens it is kind of embarrassing for MMA in general. Obviously if a boxer decided to go into the Octagon for a fight they would be absolutely destroyed as well and this is the reason why we never see this happen.
I've not been a fan of MMA fighters moving over to boxing and like a lot of things, we have Conor McGregor to blame for this ever becoming a thing. I'll give credit where credit is due because Conor looked a lot better in the ring vs Mayweather than any of these other guys have.
Ngannou should have never been in this position and the calls for this to stop should be listened to but of course they will not be because there is so much money changing hands at these things. I would imagine the around $20 million that Ngannou is set to receive from this fight will help to cushion the blows of mockery that he is destined to face because of this. In that regard it is totally understandable why a UFC fighter would put their reputation on the line even if if was for a single fight that would result in the destruction of their fight history.
I think this loss will have a much greater impact than the ones vs. Jake Paul since Paul is not a real boxer anyway. This in my mind merely showcases what can and will happen to an MMA fighter when they step in the ring with a guy that isn't going to take it easy on them and is still part of the boxing championship picture on a global scale. Francis got absolutely destroyed in there and at no point in time did he look like he was even remotely a threat to Anthony Joshua.
So after this can we PLEASE return to having these two sports remain separate? Or at the minimum let's limit it to side-shows the likes of which Jake Paul will no doubt keep moving forward with.