While Boxing may not occupy the same sort of space within the sports/pop culture fabric of America that it used to, every now and then, let's say half a dozen times a year, there's a fight that manages to capture a little bit of the excitement that was once palpable when fighters like Mike Tyson and Sugar Ray Leonard dominated the sport in the 80s. This may be one of those instances.
This fight, which will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia was supposed to be a bout between Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder, two heavyweight behemoths who had been circling each other for years, but could just never get the timing right. Instead, following Deontay Wilder's surprising loss to Joseph Parker, plans have changed. Now it will be Joshua, who was victorious against Otto Wellin in his third and final fight in the year 2023, taking on a former UFC Champion.
“Anthony Joshua and Francis Ngannou have struck a deal for a heavyweight boxing match in Riyadh, Turki Alalshikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority, announced Friday on social media,” writes Mike Coppinger of ESPN.com. The highly anticipated bout will take place on March 9th, 2024.
Now if you were to just look at the respective pro records of each of these two fighters, you'd find that the matchup doesn't necessarily make much sense on paper. Joshua's career record is 27-3, and he's held countless heavyweight titles throughout his career. Ngannou is 0-1 in the boxing ring, yet that one loss spoke volumes about Ngannou's special potential as a boxer.
Ngannou left the UFC as the promotion's undisputed Heavyweight Champion. Unable to reach a deal on a new contract, Ngannou shifted his focus to boxing, and in October, Ngannou stunned the boxing world when he stunned Tyson Fury with a colossal left-hand which dropped the champion for only the seventh time in his career. Fury would go on to win the fight by a controversial split decision, but if ever there were a moral victory, it belonged to Ngannou, who proved without debate that he belongs in this sport.
There's speculation that whoever wins the fight between Francis Ngannou and Anthony Joshua will go on to face either Tyson Fury or Oleksandr Usyk, depending on whether it's Fury or Usyk who emerges from their February 17th fight with the undisputed heavyweight crown.
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