Heavyweight boxing seems to have found a new home in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and on Friday night (March 8) there is another huge event in the Kingdom as former two-time world heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua squares off against former UFC star turned heavyweight contender Francis Ngannou.
The card has been called ‘Knockout Chaos’, and such a billing seems apt given that maximum violence is almost guaranteed in the main event. There is much to get excited about.
Furyjoshua.com looks at some of the key questions going into the big showdown:
Will there be a title on the line?
No title. Just two big men with almighty striking power. What’s not to like? Both men have been world champions in their respective combat sports, both look like they are carved out of stone and both will know a victory paves the way for a direct crack at the ‘Undisputed’ heavyweight title once Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk finally take care of business in May.
Former UFC heavyweight champion Ngannou made a sensational pro boxing debut last year when he competed in the ‘Battle of the Baddest’ against WBC world champion Tyson Fury. As debuts go his was pretty astonishing as he dropped Fury early and overall did much better than most people expected (before eventually losing a split decision on the cards).
Joshua meanwhile is the former two-time unified WBO, IBF, and WBA heavyweight champion. AJ first held the titles from March 2018 to July 2019. He later reclaimed the three belts with a unanimous decision win over Andy Ruiz Jr in December 2019, before losing them again to Oleksandr Usyk in 2021.
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Can we assume both men are being well paid for this heavyweight attraction?
Joshua is obviously box-office, and has made crazy money since turning pro in 2013 through purses and sponsorship.
According to a recent report from Forbes, the estimated total purse for this fight will be the region of $70 million. This will not be split equally however, with AJ taking a bigger cut as the ‘A Side’ fighter. The Englishman is likely to have a $50 million guarantee, and we are hearing that Ngannou is getting $20 million, which would easily be his single biggest payday ever.
All of this will reportedly be before pay-per-view sales, which is incredible. In the last 18 months, the Saudis have pretty much taken over big-time boxing at the behest of Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of the General Entertainment Authority in Saudi Arabia. Money literally seems to be no object and as a result, it’s a genuine boom time for the sport.
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How has Ngannou managed to land back-to-back fights with hands down the two biggest names in heavyweight boxing?
To be honest, if I am a top-5 heavyweight such as Zhilei Zhang or Filip Hrgovic, I would be raging that a novice like Ngannou has come in, jumped the queue and boxed two of the best heavyweights on the planet in back-to-back fights for mega-money. Last year ‘Team Fury’ probably thought that the Cameroonian posed little threat and was a nice low-risk, high (financial) reward contest to shake some rust off before boxing Usyk for all the marbles.
However Ngannou did so well in that fight there is an argument he is the hottest commodity in the heavyweight division right now, and ‘Team AJ’ will feel if they can do a better job on ‘The Predator’ than ‘The Gypsy King’ did it will give them extra bargaining chips in any negotiations if Fury beat Usyk later this year.
Ngannou was much more competitive than most thought he would be against Fury. How good actually is he?
You cannot overstate how good of a debut that was. The former UFC heavyweight champ proved the entire boxing world wrong - in thrilling fashion - with his performance against Fury, who entered the bout not only as the WBC and lineal heavyweight champion but a fighter almost universally regarded as THE best heavyweight of his era at that point.
Whether Fury was underprepared for the fight is a bit of a moot point. The facts are that he appeared hurt by every power shot Ngannou landed, and the African showed brilliant fitness to take it to Fury for the full 10 sessions.
The display was impressive enough to earn him a place in the top 10 of the WBC heavyweight rankings, and he will be genuinely hopeful he can stop Joshua. He troubled Fury with left hooks all night last October, and if he catches AJ clean, who knows what might transpire.
Lennox Lewis said on X / Twitter earlier this year that “this fight adds ZERO credibility to AJ’s resume.” Fair comment or a bit harsh from Lewis?
We need a bit of context here before addressing the quote. Lewis retired in 2004 as a three-time world champion and remains boxing's last undisputed heavyweight king. While his relationship with AJ over the years has been, shall we say, less than cordial. It was not always that way.
Lewis was ringside to watch AJ become Olympic champion in 2012 and the pair were seemingly quite close for a while after that. However, that all changed, according to Lewis.
Lennox gave his version of how things played out on the Undefeated Podcast, as he said: “He turned pro and he was saying I was his favourite boxer. I said, ‘Come out to Jamaica and we’ll talk.’
“We talked about my career and he loved listening to the stories and all the different things that I went through.
“I said, ‘I’d love to help you,’ I don’t want to be his promoter, I’m not a promoter, but there’s things I can teach him.
“He phoned me, he said, ‘I really want you to help me.’ I said, ‘Okay, good.’
“Then I didn’t hear from him again. I heard that he picked some other people to help him, he was doing his professional career and that was it."
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Lewis would later criticise Joshua for failing to make the ‘Undisputed’ fight with Deontay Wilder when the two men held all four world titles, and then ripped into him in the wake of his shock 2019 loss to Ruiz Jr, alluding that AJ should split from his long-time trainer Rob McCracken.
In a Sky Sports interview a couple of months later, AJ broke his silence and replied emphatically, snarling: “Lennox is a clown. I don’t respect Lennox. Me and Lennox are not the same.
"My legacy is to sit back and enjoy the younger generation coming up, and not to be involved.
“Just to appreciate what it takes to get there. Lennox isn’t like that. Me and Lennox are cut from a different cloth.”
In terms of that latest X/Twitter quote, if Joshua pieces Ngannou up and stops him in three or four rounds it probably doesn’t really add to his overall legacy.
However, the narrative would be that AJ did a better job on Ngannou than Fury managed and therefore Fury and AJ must fight to find out who is the main man between them.
In 1976 Japanese wrestling star Antonio Inoki faced the undisputed world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali in Japan. That was a stinker as crossover fights go by the way, but it didn’t taint Ali’s overall legacy and we all still view him as ‘The Greatest’.
Obviously one of the downsides of reaching the absolute top in any sport is that everyone else has an easy target to aim at, irrespective of whether those taking aim have a right to do so or not.
Lewis is an all-time great heavyweight so when he talks people naturally listen, but one wonders whether his prose here was/is fuelled by the fact he remains slightly salty about not having a more active role in Joshua’s pro journey?
What’s the story with Joshua’s constantly evolving backroom team?
McCracken was with Joshua for years, but their long-running partnership ended after the first Usyk loss in 2021.
Robert Garcia and Angel Fernandez were in his corner for the Usyk rematch, and while his performance was better, he lost again on points and then had that infamous meltdown in the ring post-fight. It wasn't long before Garcia was out and Derrick James was in, and the American was in the corner for his fights against Jermaine Franklin and Robert Helenius.
AJ didn’t dazzle in either of those wins, and at some point after Helenius, Ben Davison came on board.
Davison and AJ seem to have a certain chemistry, despite the former once being Fury’s coach. He now looks a front-foot fighter once again under Davison, and much less tentative than he once did.
And who has been getting Ngannou ready for this?
Dewey Cooper is the head trainer, and Ngannou has mainly done most of his MMA training camps at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas. He prepared in Vegas for that stunning performance against Fury last October, but has had his full camp for this one in Saudi. Eric Nicksick, another Xtreme Couture coach, has also been involved in helping the big man get ready.
Much has been made of Ngannou’s punching power? Is it for real?
There’s no question that Ngannou is a very powerful man with a huge punch. UFC president Dana White once memorably said, “Francis Ngannou has the world record for the most powerful punch, his punch is the equivalent to 96 horsepower which is equal to getting hit by a Ford Escort going as fast as it can.”
We are not sure how much of that was hyperbole, but having knocked Fury down we know his power is for real.
Incidentally, in one of the media days in the run up to this, Ngannou took his turn on Gym Shark's punch machine in London while carrying out his press duties.
In truth, Ngannou didn’t even look to throw his full weight behind the shot and yet when he connected he blasted out a maximum score of 999. He will know that a stoppage is his best - perhaps only - route to victory and the game plan will surely be to try and get Joshua to engage in a firefight.
Ngannou is respectful outside of the ring, but a true fighting man at his core.
Anything decent on the undercard on this ‘Knockout Chaos’ bill?
The undercard is not as stacked as the last big heavyweight show a few days before Christmas, but there are some quality matchups. Zhilei Zhang goes up against Joseph Parker in a top heavyweight attraction that acts as chief support. Parker’s shock win over Wilder in December scuppered plans for AJ vs Wilder, but the New Zealander’s reward for that Wilder upset is another tough gig against Zhang.
Zhang’s two performances against the mighty Joe Joyce last year - which included a shocking third-round KO win - propelled the Chinese giant right into the mix at the heavyweight top table.
Zhang is a southpaw who can really bang, and he will be knocking loudly on the door for a world title shot should he do the business on Friday. Parker is only 32, so might be a bit fresher and he has scored four consecutive wins since an 11th-round KO loss to Joyce in 2022. However Zhang holds the edge in terms of power and can catch up with Parker before the halfway point as Parker - while always game - has never been the most elusive fighter.
Further down the card, exciting Scouse featherweight Nick Ball gets his first shot at a world title on this bill. The 19-0 (11) Ball will challenge Rey Vargas of Mexico for the WBC 126lbs title, and the bookies have him as a slight 4/6 favourite. Vargas is 36-1 (22) so has a clear edge when it comes to experience, but he has also been a pro since 2010 so Ball could be getting him at the right time. The Mexican has been inactive for a year, and was last seen losing to O'Shaquie Foster so the pick is for the younger, fresher Ball to get the job done in Riyadh.
Joshua v Ngannou: Fight card, running order, and TV details
- MAIN EVENT: Anthony Joshua (1/5) vs Francis Ngannou (10/3)
- Zhilei Zhang vs Joseph Parker - for WBO interim heavyweight title
- Rey Vargas vs Nick Ball - for WBC featherweight title
- Mark Chamberlain vs Gavin Gwynne
- Andrii Novytskyi vs Juan Torres
- Justis Huni vs Kevin Lerena
- Ziyad Almaayouf vs TBA
- Roman Fury vs TBA
- Jack McGann vs TBA
Start time and TV coverage details
- Times: Undercard 1900 GMT, Friday March 8, Main Event 2300 GMT
- Venue: Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- TV channel and cost: DAZN UK PPV & Sky Sports PPV, £19.99
