By Elliot Worsell
Regardless of the rights and wrongs, there is something quite beautiful and poetic about Francis Ngannou, a man who this time last year had never had a boxing match, suddenly becoming the most sought-after and interesting heavyweight boxer on the planet. . It is, in many ways, exactly what the heavyweight division deserves for stagnating and preventing countless great fights from happening for so long. It’s what you get for squeezing the competition out of a sport and making it all about money. This is what you get when greed is considered a valuable attribute.
With the risk considered minimal, but the financial advantage of fighting him enormous, Ngannou, a 37-year-old mixed martial artist, has somehow become something of a go-between for boxing’s heavyweight division; the mutual friend; the therapy dog; The voice of reason. Without him, after all, we wouldn’t have seen Tyson Fury, the heavyweight champion, box last year. Not only that, if it weren’t for Ngannou, who the hell would Anthony Joshua fight next?
In fact, while the rest struggle to put their egos aside and take the risks necessary to cement their legacy, Ngannou, a rookie with nothing to lose, entered the sport and showed others how to do it. In the space of just six months, he agreed to fight Fury and Joshua, two UK heavyweights who have so far been unable to share a ring and, due to his complete lack of ego and bravery when it comes to La’s perspective defeat, becomes a refreshing counterpoint.
That doesn’t mean the idea of Ngannou fighting Fury and Joshua in six months without any prior boxing experience is any less strange or worrying (for the sport), but he certainly can’t be blamed. In fact, rather than picking holes in this most unusual of heavyweight careers, we should look to Ngannou as an example of what can be achieved when the desire to fight the best outweighs the desire to fool an audience with a inflated record. His age, of course, has had a lot to do with the speed at which he moves, as well as the obscene salaries coming from men in the Middle East, but we still have to appreciate how easy it is for Ngannou to say ” Yeah”. to fights against heavyweights with notoriously adverse and difficult risks at the negotiating table.
As a result of this ambition, Ngannou, after only 10 professional rounds, has become one of the most popular heavyweight boxers in the world. Better yet, he has successfully become a target for other heavyweights; the one piece of the heavyweight puzzle that the rest of them, all blinded by his own importance, have been unable to locate despite all of his attempts, shouts and petulant insults.
This is how he did it.
1) That fall
There can be no doubt that the image of Ngannou standing next to Tyson Fury during the fourth round of what was supposed to be a freakshow-style clash will have done more for Ngannou’s heavyweight career and selling power than any another thing. A true bolt from the blue, no one saw it coming, neither before the fight, when Ngannou’s chances were rightly ridiculed, nor even during the fight, despite Ngannou’s surprisingly positive start. However, when it happened, it quickly became easy to see how; After all, Ngannou, regardless of his limitations, had by this time unsettled Fury and was gaining more confidence with every wild but dangerous movement of his right or left hand. It would be a stretch to say the moment was coming, I admit, but Ngannou’s knockdown in the fourth round was anything but a flash in the pan or a fluke.
Francis Ngannou knocks down Tyson Fury (Getty Images)
2) Your story
As inspiring a story as any in today’s heavyweight division, Ngannou, in addition to being a breath of fresh air in a competitive sense, also offers hope that good things happen to good people, sometimes. Ngannou, a burly man born and raised in the small town of Batié, Cameroon, found himself working in one of the mountain region’s sand quarries at the tender age of 10. Sixteen years later, meanwhile, he headed to France with the aim of studying a career in professional boxing, only to end up being imprisoned for two months in Spain for illegally crossing the border by sea. When he later arrived in Paris, he did so with nothing (no money, no friends and nowhere to live) and for a time he was forced to live homeless on the streets. This led to a chance meeting with Francis Carmont, a mixed martial arts artist, who in turn introduced him to Fernand López, another Cameroonian living in France, and the MMA Factory. It was there that Ngannou’s journey in MMA would begin.
3) Its power of attraction
While it’s always good to feel loved by a promoter, in 2024 there can be no better feeling for a boxer than being loved by Saudi Arabia, an entire nation. That is just one of the many privileges Francis Ngannou currently enjoys; one that promises to make him a boxing fixture, regardless of whether he wins or loses. Thanks also to this privilege, Ngannou is winning like never before and is now also in a position to ignore the traditions and classifications of boxing and, like a spoiled child born to scared parents, simply pursue all the fights that attract him and make more sense ( financial). By being blessed by the Middle East in this way, he has been granted the golden ticket to go to the chocolate factory and then has been fast-tracked, taking the mother of all shortcuts to get there.
Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
4) His physical strength
As easy as it is to focus on his heavy hands and the damage they did to Fury in October, one aspect of Ngannou’s game that shouldn’t be overlooked is his physical strength when fighting inside. This, of all the things we ignored before the fight, was perhaps the most important, particularly given his extensive career in mixed martial arts, a sport in which physical strength and grappling ability are considered one of the most important facets. vital. In fact, it was only once the fight was over (and we had watched Ngannou essentially manhandle Fury, a much larger human being, for 10 rounds) that I was reminded of the numerous boxers who have used mixed martial artists to train throughout of the years. They would not do it out of courtesy or out of the goodness of their heart, but because in the end a mixed martial artist, due to the nature of his sport, possesses a strength that a boxer, given the nature of his sport, would have. They rarely coincide.
5) Its hardness
In addition to his internal strength, we must consider Francis Ngannou’s durability and respect it as another reason why (a) he will always be visible as a rookie heavyweight and (b) his technical limitations are not necessarily fatal. The truth is, there was nothing Ngannou did against Fury during his 10 rounds that was especially smart, defensively or offensively, and yet he remained in striking range and was dangerous due to Fury’s utter inability to deter him or dent him. This ensured Ngannou could take risks that other heavyweights, even tougher ones like Dillian Whyte and Derek Chisora, couldn’t take against Fury of late. It also meant that Ngannou could plant seeds of doubt in the mind of a heavyweight champion who is normally in control of things due to his size, long arms and sheer presence. In response to all that, Ngannou simply shrugged and said, “So what?” He then continued marching forward.
Ngannou throws his hook towards Fury (FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP via Getty Images)
