News Joshua vs Ngannou Official March 8th Saudi Arabia

[moreorless87]

That is a good point, but also he's not so mobile and doesn't have much offense, so you could just circle around him and jab and stay defensive. I think it's a pipe dream that people are going to see Joshua get in there and take him out. He's going to use all his defensive tricks and remain on the outside with low output so he doesn't get countered. Who knows, maybe Ngannou has an answer for that and can land? I thought Fury was going to be able to walk him down and beat him everywhere, but he felt something and never wanted to close distance too much with Ngannou.

Besides the Gane fight though I were I think the knee injury was very significant Francis has been pretty mobile IMHO, he's an agile guy for his size and his gameplan is typically to walk down opponents, force them into exchanging with him and then exploit openings.

AJ should be techically better than him and you'd expect him to land more BUT he has always struck me as a bit flakey which is I think Francis real bread and butter, pressuring people and exploiting mistakes.

Joshua does also hit pretty hard himself of course and maybe less dependant on bullying people than Fury is as well?

 

[spinup]

That is a good point, but also he's not so mobile and doesn't have much offense, so you could just circle around him and jab and stay defensive. I think it's a pipe dream that people are going to see Joshua get in there and take him out. He's going to use all his defensive tricks and remain on the outside with low output so he doesn't get countered. Who knows, maybe Ngannou has an answer for that and can land? I thought Fury was going to be able to walk him down and beat him everywhere, but he felt something and never wanted to close distance too much with Ngannou.

AJ benefited from most of his opponent retreating whenever he attacked, I see Ngannou standing his ground much more, using his reach to counter or trying to force a "long clinch" to land his punches.
I also think Ngannou will be better this time than against Fury, but we'll see.

 

[Tweak896]

Besides the Gane fight though I were I think the knee injury was very significant Francis has been pretty mobile IMHO, he's an agile guy for his size and his gameplan is typically to walk down opponents, force them into exchanging with him and then exploit openings.

AJ should be techically better than him and you'd expect him to land more BUT he has always struck me as a bit flakey which is I think Francis real bread and butter, pressuring people and exploiting mistakes.

Joshua does also hit pretty hard himself of course and maybe less dependant on bullying people than Fury is as well?

I'm sort of throwing the Gane fight out, only talking about what I saw with Fury, he's clearly not very light on his feet or as many aggressive blitzes as people expect. I saw some body work for his offense, but his main game was waiting for the big counter, and really could only do it once inside the whole fight. I was actually expecting Ngannou to pressure and throw and get it done early, but we'll see if he can do that at this level of boxing. Ngannou should turn the match into physical attributes vs physical attributes where he can. Clinch, brawl, close distance. AJ should just be able to outbox Ngannou with the bullying.

AJ benefited from most of his opponent retreating whenever he attacked, I see Ngannou standing his ground much more, using his reach to counter or trying to force a "long clinch" to land his punches.
I also think Ngannou will be better this time than against Fury, but we'll see.

That's a good point, I don't see Ngannou as very evasive either, so he won't be too far away when AJ wants to come in. Ngannou's clinch was underrated last time, he probably can hang with boxing guys there. I have a feeling Ngannou will do worse here, but hope I'm wrong. AJ is going to put in a real camp this time. Ngannou can clip anyone at HW, so can't ever count him out.

 

[oscerthegrouch]

love when boxing pushes it way into UFC MMA section....

 

[moreorless87]

I'm sort of throwing the Gane fight out, only talking about what I saw with Fury, he's clearly not very light on his feet or as many aggressive blitzes as people expect. I saw some body work for his offense, but his main game was waiting for the big counter, and really could only do it once inside the whole fight. I was actually expecting Ngannou to pressure and throw and get it done early, but we'll see if he can do that at this level of boxing. Ngannou should turn the match into physical attributes vs physical attributes where he can. Clinch, brawl, close distance. AJ should just be able to outbox Ngannou with the bullying.

That's a good point, I don't see Ngannou as very evasive either, so he won't be too far away when AJ wants to come in. Ngannou's clinch was underrated last time, he probably can hang with boxing guys there. I have a feeling Ngannou will do worse here, but hope I'm wrong. AJ is going to put in a real camp this time. Ngannou can clip anyone at HW, so can't ever count him out.

This is boxing were talking about of course and the kind of bullrushing Francis could do in MMA is never likely to be possible against higher level comp, I think by boxing standards he didnt look that slow vs Fury, he was able to spend a lot of the fight putting pressure on him.

I don't think I see AJ being able to just keep Francis on the end of a jab all night personally, maybe in the second half of the fight if Francis is gassed he can switch more to that but I feel before that he'll probably need to be throwing more back at him and having to cover up a good deal.

I think thats maybe the big test for Francis here, can he break open Joshua's guard? Fury did kind of play Francis game keeping his hands low and depending more on head movement/timing for defence.

 

[doggo]

Hell yeah, it's gonna be one hell of a movie too, and fuck Dana. Here's to hoping Francis lands one of his giant meatfist bombs and shocks the world once again.

If Joshua gets carried away after landing a big one like he did with Ruiz and gets sloppy Francis could deffo land a big one and hurt him.

I am VERY interested in this fight.

 

[Streeter]

Love how they make a big fight on a Fri an not a Saturday when going against UFC now.. Frank beat Dana but not MMA.

 

[markys00]

My favorite UFC event!

 

[LEWIS540]

 

[Blastbeat]

Looking forward to seeing Nick Ball again. Love his style. He's ferocious.

would you say he's got Balls?

 

[Jonny Ninja]

Love how they make a big fight on a Fri an not a Saturday when going against UFC now.. Frank beat Dana but not MMA.

The Saudis don’t give 2 shits about ppv numbers or the US market. Money isn’t an issue and it’s not the reason for their events. I’m also guessing that if they were on the same day, the boxing already finished by the ufc299 under card starts.

 

[Tweak896]

This is boxing were talking about of course and the kind of bullrushing Francis could do in MMA is never likely to be possible against higher level comp, I think by boxing standards he didnt look that slow vs Fury, he was able to spend a lot of the fight putting pressure on him.

I don't think I see AJ being able to just keep Francis on the end of a jab all night personally, maybe in the second half of the fight if Francis is gassed he can switch more to that but I feel before that he'll probably need to be throwing more back at him and having to cover up a good deal.

I think thats maybe the big test for Francis here, can he break open Joshua's guard? Fury did kind of play Francis game keeping his hands low and depending more on head movement/timing for defence.

Maybe I need to rewatch the fight, I don't mean his punch speed but ability to close distance with footwork. To me it didn't look like he had an effective offense in between his power counters. Boxing the highest level is absolutely leagues above where MMA striking is, let alone the HW level for sure, he can't do what he used to and bullrush. However wouldn't it be in Ngannou's favor if he can make it punch for punch and create times to trade? The first 3 rounds are probably the biggest danger where Joshua will be more hesitant to engage and commit the least to his punches. Either way, I assume Joshua turns it into a boxing match for most of the fight once Ngannou's gas is more than halfway done.

 

[Deaths Head]

Someone needs to tag Wilder with this photo. Lol

 

[Dana's Moonface]

When has Joshua not looked in shape though?

True but he is looking even sharper imo than previous fights

 

[Marko Atanasovik]

Lerena has wins against better boxers than Huni. Odds are crazy.

 

[Colin Mackie]

I'm predicting Joshua by UD10 in a very dull fight. If it somehow turns into Foreman/Lyle I would give the edge to Ngannou due to size and physicality, but I just don't see it happening.

 

[Jean-MMA]

The Saudis don’t give 2 shits about ppv numbers or the US market. Money isn’t an issue and it’s not the reason for their events. I’m also guessing that if they were on the same day, the boxing already finished by the ufc299 under card starts.

They have F1 in Barhein event saturday

 

[Jonny Ninja]

They have F1 in Barhein event saturday

That’ll be why it’s on Friday then. Cheers dude

 

[Culombo]

anyone watching this press conference .. ngannou looks MASSIVE .. huge head .. big, lean and jacked .. aj looks like a child next to him .. of course that doesn't decide a fight .. but if ngannou lands something on his head, aj's not getting up ... I don't think he's faced someone this jacked

 

[Poirierfan]

The Saudis don’t give 2 shits about ppv numbers or the US market. Money isn’t an issue and it’s not the reason for their events. I’m also guessing that if they were on the same day, the boxing already finished by the ufc299 under card starts.

Agreed