By Matthew Hunter:
Joshua vs Ngannou:
This last weekend featured a strong dismissal of MMA turned boxers with lineal UFC champion Francis Ngannou attempting to box a high level boxer for a second time. This time however–Anthony Joshua was no Tyson Fury. Joshua demolished Ngannou with devastating right hands to put the MMA champion out of consciousness.
Most likely, this means Francis Ngannou will return to MMA and PFL with a diminished profile. If he had returned to PFL after the contentious loss to Fury–perhaps that wouldn’t be the case. But his age and now two losses in another combat sport can not help his next run in MMA.
Anthony Joshua is back? It’s too far to say he’s returned to form since this is a fight against a “boxer” with an 0-1 record. These type of fights need to be frowned upon because of the vast differences in skill and ability. Ngannou could have been significantly hurt in this fight. And what does this do for AJ’s legacy? Will it do anything but get him a massive payday from a country urgently trying to sports-wash its domestic and foreign policy.
Anthony Joshua vs Joseph Parker is an easy rematch to make–especially as he has to wait for Fury-Usyk to finish their contractual dual fights. Heavyweight boxing is in a odd dilemma of the young stars that were supposed to be this generation of phenomenal talent and stardom–to revive not only the division but the entire sport. Has this generation done that? Did the promotions and networks do the right matchmaking and promotional marketing to achieve that?
Tyson vs Paul:
When the news hit social media of the Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul fight on Netflix, I couldn’t help but feel like this is another disgrace to any sense of meritocracy, fighter protection with state regulators, etc. This is a farce of a fight and a complete money grab. It’s a dangerous thing for a fighter with the age and fight mileage of Mike Tyson to be fighting anyone, let alone a circus show with youtuber and former Vine star Jake Paul. This is purely to make money for every greasy slimeball executive and capitalist involved with the event.
To try to analyze who would win in such an event seems futile and misses the forest for the trees. Why does the industry support such events? Why do networks throw money away at such short term events? It’s quite similar to the AJ-Ngannou fight except AJ is still relatively in his prime unlike Mike Tyson and Paul had no combat experience before entering boxing.