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2:03

Oh yeah. Oh

2:05

no. Wow.

2:09

Saudi Arabia heavyweight boxing

2:11

in Godot versus Joshua

2:14

and boom, when the former UFC

2:17

heavyweight champion from the

2:20

absolute dynamite of Asia,

2:22

I'm Brian Campbell of Morning Combat

2:24

here to break it down. Welcome

2:26

into the post-fight analysis show. That

2:30

was vicious. That was violent. That

2:33

was unexpected, obviously in some

2:35

ways and the totality of the

2:37

one sided nature for all

2:39

the thoughts we had coming into this about

2:42

whether this was about Francis and Ghana's

2:44

story and how much of

2:46

that performance last October and a disputed

2:49

split decision loss to Tyson Fury. Fury

2:52

being overweight was, you

2:54

know, magic was an aberration was

2:57

excuse, excuse, excuse. Most

3:00

of us raised rightfully so our

3:02

expectations of what in Ghana who

3:04

could do against Joshua, but styles

3:06

do make fights. Can't

3:08

look away from that being a very out

3:11

of shape fury last fall. Anthony

3:14

Joshua, when he acts like that,

3:16

when he behaves like that, when he

3:18

speaks like that, when he thinks like

3:20

that, when he makes ice cold, Taylor

3:23

looks like that without celebrating

3:26

after delivering the boom. You

3:28

quickly realized it was the

3:31

wrong guy on the wrong night

3:33

and that extremely large gap in

3:35

true experience and form and technique,

3:37

which in Ghana was able to,

3:39

I don't want to say fudge,

3:41

but not expose himself against fury

3:43

because he was limiting himself to

3:45

just one punch at a time.

3:47

One would ultimately cost him on

3:49

the scorecards, but this is

3:51

just a different fight against a different fighter

3:53

who was more dangerous when he's dialed in

3:55

and that's Anthony Joshua. A

3:58

lot to sort of sort out here in a

4:00

fight. that didn't even last two full rounds, but

4:02

it's hard to ignore so much of

4:05

the unknown now moving forward for

4:07

Francis Nganu. This is

4:09

AJ's story. That's what ultimately this fight was

4:11

about. And it's, you know, I'm not

4:13

going to meme Nganu. I'm not going to laugh at

4:15

him. I mean, that was violent. And I think for

4:18

a little bit, we were all sort of, you

4:20

know, praying that he was going to be okay.

4:22

I mean, he ultimately gave him oxygen and he

4:24

came back under and stood on his own power.

4:27

You know, I don't even want to do what a

4:30

lot of boxing folks are doing, fighters, fans, media, and

4:32

saying, you know, that one was for boxing. No, I

4:34

mean, and what Nganu did against Fury changed

4:36

us in a lot of ways, not just our

4:38

expectations or the respect we had for him. And

4:43

Nganu's a tough out. You're

4:45

not going to know that by the way this fight went. And

4:47

I do think the the technical key,

4:50

technical error and going to that

4:52

switching stance to Southpaw, which is something

4:54

he did a ton in MMA either.

4:57

Obviously, if your defense isn't up to

4:59

up to snuff with your offhand, you

5:02

can leave that opening. And boy, did

5:04

he ever since that first round right

5:06

cross, which exposed his inexperience in that

5:09

stance landed boy, was it downhill quick

5:11

for Nganu. But before that

5:13

happened, I think you can make the argument that

5:15

he actually looked better this time around in

5:18

a better success. But I mean, physically, he's always

5:21

a brick shit house, as they used to

5:23

say in my hometown. But

5:26

he was just that next level. I mean, he looked like a

5:29

tank out there. Did you see his back muscles? I

5:31

mean, it was just absolutely ridiculous. And I

5:33

think he really, in that five

5:35

months, six months gap since last since the fight

5:37

in October, I think he really stepped

5:40

up his game. Now it's hard to

5:42

make that statement when you see him

5:44

get ultimately splattered in such debilitating ways

5:46

and shocking ways giving his history of

5:48

chin and recuperativeness and inspiration and all

5:51

of that. But I mean, these were

5:53

clean shots off of technical errors

5:55

that no one's gonna withstand. No one's gonna

5:57

get up from I mean, he got up

5:59

twice. But ever since the first

6:01

knockdown, I think it did shake him enough

6:03

where even though he was able to regroup,

6:05

he didn't look like he was on spaghetti

6:07

legs, he wasn't able to regain any form

6:09

of control. I actually thought he was winning

6:11

the first round up until that knockdown happened.

6:13

Not overly impressive, but jabbing to the body,

6:15

nice counter left hooks every time AJ tried

6:18

to jab to the body himself and dipped his

6:20

head down to his right. Those

6:22

little counter left hooks were there, shows you a

6:25

nice wrinkle and improvement. But

6:27

there was a confidence in Nganu that I thought

6:29

the announced team, Todd Grisham leading that all

6:32

star cast of Darren Barker, big British

6:34

heroes on there, in saying

6:36

that was

6:38

it too confident, was it too cocky? Well

6:40

look, Tyson Fury, you don't

6:42

want to say he doesn't have big time power, that

6:45

used to be the reputation of him, but I think

6:47

since hooking up with Sugar

6:49

Hill Stewart as new trainer and really sitting

6:51

down on punches, being the bigger fighter, I

6:53

always say Tyson Fury's fight with Otto Valin,

6:55

where he had that vicious cut where his

6:58

heavyweight title was hanging in the balance

7:00

in the future fights that he was going to have, I think

7:03

he learned that night how to be 6'9 and

7:07

lean into your shots and be powerful. He's

7:10

turned himself around, we saw that in the second

7:12

and third wilder fights, into being a big puncher. I

7:15

mean if you're 6'9 and you're athletic and you're quick

7:17

like he is and you step into one, you

7:19

can lay somebody out. But he does not or

7:21

never had the type of power where

7:23

people go flying. Beautiful knockout

7:25

of Dillian White Tyson Fury had on that uppercut

7:27

inside. But AJ

7:30

has real, ridiculous power and

7:32

he has always had, he's always been an

7:34

incredible finisher with both hands. His

7:36

uppercuts have been Lennox Lewis-like and I don't

7:38

think that's hyperbole. It's just been

7:40

the disconnect which started in the

7:42

first loss to Andy Ruiz, his first loss

7:46

of his career back in 2019 in

7:48

MSG and he never

7:50

really put Humpty Dumpty back together again. The

7:53

two Ussik losses, the meltdown after the second fight.

7:56

I didn't think he'd ever be this guy again, the

7:58

guy he was against Otto Wallin. just in December a

8:00

few months ago and then the guy he ultimately was

8:02

here but like I said off the

8:04

top all the talk that this was going to be in

8:07

Ganu's story now we got to

8:09

figure out if a Ganu story should continue you

8:11

know in boxing or MMA and combat in general

8:13

what will be the long-term physical

8:16

and psychological damage of a

8:18

knockout this vicious this extreme

8:21

dang I mean let me catch my

8:23

breath there dang it

8:26

felt like a heat check moment you know

8:28

when you're playing NBA Jam and it doesn't

8:30

even matter if you're you know if you're

8:33

using true all-stars or

8:35

some of those bootleg guys they let on there

8:37

remember that time the Mavericks had Mike

8:39

Isolino that little white shooting guard from

8:41

St. Francis College and he made the

8:43

NBA Jam game but if he gets

8:45

even if he gets on fire it's

8:48

nothing but nylon it's just gonna explode

8:50

into flames but

8:52

inevitably for the for the

8:54

long elongated basketball reference you

8:57

got to throw one up from about 30 feet

9:00

to check to check if it's real to check

9:02

if it's gonna last whatever magic

9:04

in Ganu had against

9:06

fury through fury being

9:08

unfocused through that beautiful counter left hand

9:11

that was delivered beautifully and I thought

9:13

David Hay in the lead up to

9:15

this fight on the Dazon broadcast really

9:18

spelled out perfectly why in

9:20

Ganu was dangerous from a technical standpoint

9:22

in such short time transitioning

9:24

to this sport how he was able

9:26

to turn his punches over and be

9:28

that powerful but Stiles

9:31

made fights and once those mistakes

9:33

kicked in and once she

9:36

realized that the demeanor Tyson Fury seemed

9:38

to have brought in there in October

9:41

wasn't as serious as it needed to be

9:43

there was pressure on him of the of

9:45

will something happen in this fight a cut

9:47

a loss that could ruin his eventual unified

9:49

superclass undisputed with Alexander Usyk which was supposed

9:51

to be just a few months later and

9:53

then we know what happened with the cut

9:55

to fury and now it's delayed to May

9:57

but The

10:00

demeanor of Tyson Fury once he got dropped

10:02

in round three was survive in advance. It

10:04

was let's almost curl up into a shell,

10:07

box jab from the outside and just, you know,

10:09

clinch and get out of trouble. The

10:12

intentions that AJ brought in were

10:15

of a stone cold killer. And I think in hindsight you

10:17

can say, I mean, look, did we over,

10:19

I don't want to say overvalue the chin of

10:21

wild, of in Ghanu, but I think we came

10:23

in here with the idea that even

10:26

with AJ being a puncher, the best bet was

10:28

the over that this would go the distance. I

10:30

believe that. I believe that not that

10:32

in Ghanu couldn't be knocked out, but we like saw

10:34

the beating he took for four rounds in the first

10:36

deep a fight. We saw, you

10:39

know, we've seen him get tagged and just shake

10:41

it off like nothing. Like that lead elbow from

10:43

Tyson Fury in October that was highly illegal and

10:46

almost seemed to be purposely thrown and it didn't

10:48

even shake him at all.

10:50

And like I mentioned, it's not like Tyson

10:52

Fury slaps you when he steps into the

10:54

punches they're big, but

10:56

he's human after all. And

10:58

when you're going to give openings and

11:00

make mistakes to somebody like AJ who

11:03

can box, I mean, AJ can outbox pretty

11:05

much every heavyweight, not named Usik or

11:08

Fury can outbox. I mean,

11:10

he's got those skills. They just weren't super

11:12

elite where I think when

11:15

you add in the knockout loss to

11:17

Ruiz and then the fact that

11:19

I think he just thought, well, when I fight Usik, man,

11:21

I'm going to be the better fighter. I'm just going to

11:23

be the better fighter and outbox him. And it just didn't

11:26

realize the true skill across from him and

11:28

the need for him to turn into a

11:30

different fighter in that moment, to be physical

11:32

and lean on the smaller heavyweight Usik to

11:34

go to the body, chase him down a

11:36

corner. I mean, there was some good that

11:38

AJ did. They were, you know, the first

11:40

fight was wider than the scores indicated. The

11:42

second fight I thought AJ fought a lot

11:44

better, but I just

11:48

didn't think he'd ever be that destroyer again. I just

11:50

never thought he would believe in his power like that

11:52

again. And it's like, do we credit the four day

11:55

darkness isolation retreat that he

11:57

went on before the Adil Valin fight in

11:59

December? with completely changing

12:01

him? I don't know. I mean, he's different now.

12:04

He's been real different ever since that meltdown

12:06

in the second Usic fight. Obviously, the AJ's different

12:08

goes all the way back to the Ruiz fight,

12:10

like I mentioned, but man, those last few fights

12:13

before the Valin won, it's like, AJ just looked

12:15

like he didn't know his own identity. He didn't

12:17

know who he is or who he was supposed

12:19

to be, and the pressures of being the Golden

12:21

Boy for so long. Not the Oscar

12:23

De La Jolla, but the 2012 Olympic

12:26

gold medalist who, by winning

12:28

that, ignited a boxing fervor in the UK

12:30

that is just still on fire today. I

12:32

mean, American gets a lot of credit too,

12:35

but I mean, Joshua was their guy. It

12:37

still is. But what he's

12:40

doing right now, even against

12:42

Ngana with the limited ability, I mean,

12:44

this is like, you know,

12:46

like Holyfield-like. This is what the greats do. I

12:48

mean, you can all...it's hard to compare guys in

12:50

different eras in different times, at different sizes, right?

12:52

It's always going to be hard to be, but

12:54

like, you can only fight who's in your era.

12:56

Now, I believe that up to a

12:58

certain point. I felt that some people, Dan

13:01

Rayfield included, were almost overvaluing the run

13:03

Vladimir Klitschko had in piling up all

13:05

those title defenses, but doing it in

13:08

the most boring and safe manner by

13:10

the second half of his career and

13:13

just being in an era devoid

13:15

of danger once he put it

13:17

together finally. And it's a credit to him for longevity, for

13:19

sure. But, you

13:21

know, would he have held the belt that long even

13:24

in this era? No, no, no, he wouldn't have. And

13:27

what AJ is doing to reinvent himself

13:29

is incredible. He's already a two-time champion.

13:32

And even though they went ham on

13:34

the hyperbole afterwards, him as promoter Eddie Heron

13:36

from the standpoint of like, this is the

13:38

best heavyweight in the world, the most dangerous

13:40

now. I mean, even though that's hyperbole because

13:43

he just lost twice to Usyk, who's going to

13:45

be in the Undisputed Clash. And I get, I

13:47

get, and I don't blame him. He's a promoter.

13:49

Eddie Heron basically saying, we hope Fury goes

13:51

out there and beats that guy Usyk. Well, yeah,

13:53

because he's not lying when he says Fury, Joshua,

13:56

could be one of the biggest

13:58

fights ever. Now he's saying it's going to be a good fight. be the

14:00

biggest fight of all time. I don't believe that. It'll

14:02

be freaking massive. I mean, AJ doing 80,000, 90,000

14:06

soccer stadiums. Him

14:09

and Fury, whether it's in Jerry World,

14:11

you know, soccer stadium in the UK,

14:13

Saudi Arabia for $2 billion or on

14:15

a helipad. I mean, it's a monster,

14:18

monster fight with their personalities and the

14:20

history at stake, but it's actually great

14:23

for boxing and heavyweight boxing that

14:26

AJ is able to come back around. Did

14:28

not think it was possible three fights ago.

14:30

Really didn't. He was still young enough, right?

14:32

He's only like 33, 34, but he

14:35

had become a, it seemed

14:37

he had become a malcontent. And

14:39

once you start changing trainers on

14:41

the regular, yet each performance, you're

14:44

not making the positive enough changes

14:46

to your game while you're changing trainers.

14:48

It felt like a constant disconnect. Well,

14:51

whatever he's doing, even though he's still producing

14:53

cringe post-fight interviews, in which sometimes it looks

14:55

like he's trying to be funny or trying

14:57

to be hip and cool in ways that

14:59

he maybe isn't, I'm not going to

15:01

make fun of him because I want

15:04

my heavyweight champions to be like that. I want

15:06

them to believe in their power. I want them

15:09

to be gunslingers. I want them to do exactly

15:11

what he did to Ngano. And in some ways,

15:13

you know, you can always argue that that was

15:15

the best strategy because, you know,

15:17

this is the point I was trying to get

15:19

to when I talked about Ngano's chin is we

15:22

overvalued it in a lot of ways because

15:24

we've seen him be so superhuman. His story

15:27

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15:29

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18:31

he's human. And

18:33

if you're gonna get a Joshua that's going

18:35

to run after that, run into that, make

18:37

that uncomfortable. Fury looked disinterested

18:40

early, but like I mentioned, when he finally got touched

18:42

by it and got it, it was like, oh crap.

18:44

Like this guy not only hits as hard

18:46

as they say that he does with both hands, but

18:49

he can find a way to get it to

18:51

me faster and more

18:53

technical than I thought he could. And it's

18:55

not perfectly technical. And those gaps, again, got

18:58

exposed here in this matchup. But AJ going

19:00

after him like he did, well,

19:02

did he really go after him? I mean, he went after him when he

19:04

had him hurt. But I think it

19:06

is that mistake, that mistake of

19:08

turning southpaw that was the beginning of the

19:10

end. It felt like the mistake Weidman made

19:12

against Rockhold to lose the title. It felt

19:15

like the mistake Chael Sonnen made in the

19:17

second Anderson Silva fight or Stefan

19:19

Bonner made in the Anderson Silva fight too.

19:23

It felt like one of those mistakes you don't

19:25

come back from. I mean, to his credit, Inganu,

19:27

who's got such an incredible will, he was able

19:29

to get up from the first two knockdowns, the

19:32

second one coming in that second round. But that

19:34

first knockdown in the second round

19:37

was absolutely brutal to the side of the ear. That's

19:39

one of those equilibrium ones that just leaves you a

19:41

mess. But when Inganu got up

19:43

from that second knockdown, the first one in the

19:46

second round, the finishing shot was

19:48

just, oh my God. I mean, to hear those

19:50

announcers say that might be the most brutal right

19:53

hand knockout shot I've seen live

19:55

ever. I

19:58

mean, you're hard pressed when you... that

20:00

in slow motion and when you know the chin

20:02

of Inganu, you'd be hard

20:04

pressed to say you've ever seen one that that that

20:06

violent in a fight like this. I mean you have

20:08

obviously. I mean God, Pacquiao

20:11

marches for anybody right? I mean good

20:14

lord. But you

20:17

know Pacquiao also leaped into that incredibly recklessly and

20:19

irresponsibly because he was so caught up in the

20:21

moment there at the end of the round. But

20:24

I mean that right cross you had

20:26

a hurt Inganu, got up you know

20:28

equilibrium damage but it happened so fast

20:30

before he could even get his full

20:32

guard up. That right was just damn

20:36

I was on HQ just CBS Sports HQ just now

20:38

with Luke Thomas live and you know he and he

20:40

really spent you know I'm

20:42

the one afterwards who's trying to fantasy match me

20:44

match me and go okay I know Inganu just

20:46

got derailed but like my

20:49

kids Deontay Wilder still kind of makes

20:51

sense right? It's big money somebody's getting

20:53

knocked out it's the two biggest punchers

20:55

in combat sports history and Deontay Wilder

20:57

just looked in December against Joseph Parker

20:59

like he shouldn't even be in the

21:01

ring anymore. That's

21:03

the carny mind of my pro

21:05

wrestling matchmaking heart. But

21:08

what Luke said is the reality of the

21:10

severity of a knockout like that is massive.

21:12

I mean he was knocked the hell out.

21:15

They didn't show the replay for a long time for

21:17

a reason. They had to kind of revive

21:19

him with the oxygen. It

21:23

was tough to see knowing Francis's story it

21:25

was hard not to cheer for him from

21:28

a sporting standpoint from a human interest standpoint

21:30

and he's not dead but you wonder

21:33

what this does to the psyche. Now he's got

21:35

a psyche and a will and a ability to

21:37

rebound in ways that like regular humans are never

21:39

going to understand right? But

21:42

still there's a tax to pay for a

21:44

loss like this and sometimes it is to

21:46

make you a little bit gun shy. I

21:48

mean he was maybe a little bit

21:50

too confident in the first round. Maybe these

22:00

two big shots. They

22:03

were him lunging, leaning, really just trying to

22:06

shake the cod woods, regain himself, but in

22:09

his attempts to do that, just slightly off the

22:11

beat. And if you're slightly off the beat against

22:13

somebody like AJ, who does have

22:15

really good technique, again, he's not gonna outbox

22:17

Fury or Usyk, and that was a tough

22:19

pill for him to swallow twice against Usyk,

22:22

but he's

22:24

gonna outbox anybody else, and he learned on the

22:26

job. He didn't pick up the sport. I mean,

22:28

AJ's a really remarkable story, and I

22:30

know that he's given a lot of people reasons to

22:32

kind of turn on him and not like him, and

22:34

he did sound like a heel at times in that

22:36

post-fight interview, but the reason why I

22:38

won't crap on him for it is because Stella

22:40

got a group back here. You know what I

22:43

mean? He deserves to take that sort of victory

22:45

lap, only he really didn't, which I respected, and

22:47

maybe it was out of the fear of him

22:49

knowing just how big that punch was that dropped

22:52

and finished and knocked out cold in Ganu, and

22:54

the fact that he said afterwards that he broke

22:56

bread within Ganu. It seems like it's

22:58

really hard to hate Francis Ganu, right, if you meet

23:00

him, if you interview him, if you read about him.

23:02

I mean, Dana's

23:04

really upset at him that he chose to

23:07

stay with the 600,000 for

23:09

the Sheryl Gan fight so he can get out of

23:11

his contract rather than accept the five million, which comes

23:13

with that, right, the renegotiated

23:15

super long restrictive deal. I

23:18

mean, look at the bags, multiple bags he has

23:20

been able to take home. I'm

23:22

sure he'll end up with one fight in the

23:24

PFL at least, and I'm sure there's big bags

23:26

to take home there, but I

23:29

don't wanna rush him back into the boxing

23:31

ring despite that Deontay Wilder matchup idea or

23:33

the PFL smart cage without making

23:35

sure that he wants to continue to do this.

23:37

I think he will though because of the competitor

23:39

in him and because the

23:41

clash thing that AJ did afterward, oh, to

23:43

finish my thought on AJ, when he knocked

23:45

him out cold, it was

23:47

ice cold from AJ, but I think some of that was

23:50

posturing because that's the new demeanor that he's operating

23:52

under, but some of that was also like, I

23:56

had to do him dirty and that's another human who I respect,

23:58

but... Yeah, it seems like nobody

24:02

can say a bad thing for a reason

24:04

about Francis Ngano. So I want to give

24:06

him his space, recover from this. But AJ

24:08

showed a lot of class afterwards when he

24:10

went to the well many times in telling

24:12

Francis his team and the audience that

24:15

this guy shouldn't be done. You got to come back. You're

24:18

good. Like you'll beat many people. And I actually

24:20

believe that if he wants to. More

24:22

than I even did when I wrote in a

24:25

post-fight column after Mayweather McGregor. Now we sort of

24:27

like all these years later, we almost

24:29

really poo poo Connor's efforts. And

24:33

maybe some of that is because of the

24:35

changing evolving narrative and you know people in

24:37

Floyd's team told me this after the fight

24:39

that he didn't really actually train that hard

24:41

like how that played out was exactly what

24:43

he was trying to do. You know read

24:45

the potentially dangerous opponent let him get tired

24:47

out and then you know put the pressure

24:49

on him walk him down rely on your

24:51

you know huge built-in

24:53

advantages and knowledge and experience and

24:55

all that. But

24:57

I remember after that fight going you know I've kind of really

25:00

wanted to but it would be a long

25:02

road. But if you really wanted to he did

25:04

seem to have certain instincts that were very good.

25:06

Now I still to this day wonder for all

25:08

the hype talk we said about when McGregor's got

25:10

that one punch power in Floyd's 40 and obviously

25:13

that was to sell it but to some degree

25:16

because McGregor hadn't outlived his magic yet.

25:18

I had not lived that run where anything

25:20

felt possible. You

25:22

almost talked yourself into it or you wanted to

25:24

talk yourself into that idea that he could do

25:26

that. But no the power didn't transfer the power

25:29

didn't carry even that really nice left uppercut to

25:31

the Adam's apple Floyd around one that he hit

25:33

didn't really seem to rough Floyd up. Well

25:35

yeah Francis is a lot different

25:37

because his power is so absurd that you know

25:40

you wonder and almost a Deontay Wilder like sense

25:42

even if he didn't work on his craft and

25:44

just went out there relied on the power could

25:46

he still beat a lot of guys he probably

25:48

could but he might if he can recover

25:50

from this physically and mentally in a way

25:53

that keeps him the same level motivated and

25:55

you know how fresh how much did he

25:57

lose on the odometer here at 37 this

26:00

type of devastation. I don't know. I don't know. But

26:02

if he wants to come back, his

26:04

skills are, you got to give him credit. You

26:06

got to give credit to Dewey Cooper, Eric Nick,

26:09

sick, extended team there. Shout out to Snapchat, Randy.

26:11

I mean, you got to give credit all the

26:13

way around. It's

26:16

not good enough to be to AJ and it got exposed against AJ

26:20

100%. But there's very few heavyweights that are Fury,

26:24

Uthik and this version of

26:26

AJ, right? I mean, Joseph

26:28

Parker looked great tonight against Jean-Joulet who knocked

26:30

Parker down twice. Okay, didn't look great. He

26:32

got knocked down twice. But Jean-Joulet

26:36

did bang, bang, zang

26:38

things where he kind of didn't have the

26:40

stamina to finish the job or even give

26:42

himself a true argument to win the fight.

26:45

But

26:48

in this Renaissance era of heavyweight that

26:50

I always brag about because the Klitschgo

26:52

run was so difficult to watch

26:54

as excitedly, right? But when Fury upset

26:56

Klitschgo in 2015, it changed. You could

26:59

feel it changing. And then we were

27:01

like, wow, if all these guys could

27:03

end up being good while they're Joshua,

27:05

Fury, oh my God, one day Uthik might go to heavyweight.

27:07

And you know, there were other guys around. Joseph Parker was

27:09

one of them back then. He was a big time prospect

27:11

and won the title early. What

27:13

did he beat? Tyson Fury's cousin, Huey, I

27:16

believe for the belt and the majority decision

27:18

and beat Andy Ruiz too in a much

27:20

earlier version of him. But the

27:24

Renaissance era is more about fights

27:26

that matter. Now it does turn out

27:28

that we're getting all time grades. I'm not

27:31

here to tell you that like this

27:33

Uthik, Fury, Joshua trio with Wilder, that

27:35

like these four Kings, if you will,

27:37

are, you know, better than Ali Norton,

27:39

Frazier Foreman or even the great nineties

27:41

group that I just mentioned, which also

27:43

included, by the way, Mike Tyson and

27:45

in Dan George Foreman and Michael Moore

27:47

to go along with Bo Holyfield Lewis,

27:49

you know, Tyson again, Ray Mercer. I

27:51

mean, just the nineties and the seventies

27:53

were incredible, but like the rest

27:55

of boxing history has always been shallow

27:57

heavyweight divisions. I mean, we always put

27:59

that That

28:01

tag on what the UFC used to

28:03

be, well, kind of still is today

28:05

in terms of a lack of extended

28:08

depth. It's hard. It's hard to

28:10

find, you know, 10, 15 all super

28:12

elite title worthy world class contenders at

28:14

any point in either sport at every

28:16

way. It's difficult in that

28:18

regard. But is

28:23

Nganu ready to be a second tier

28:25

guy right now like Joseph Parker? I

28:27

mean, probably not. But like

28:29

I said, the step

28:32

down below AJ, Fury,

28:35

you know, Wilder used to be,

28:37

Usyk, obviously. It can be

28:39

steep. It can be hit or miss. I mean, you know,

28:42

Bang Bang Zhang Zhongzhi Le looked great

28:44

in turning his career around and twice

28:47

knocking out Joe Joyce to win that secondary title

28:49

that he lost tonight. But you know, he looked

28:51

like a mess for most of his career before

28:53

that, guys. He dropped

28:56

Jerry Forrest three times but couldn't finish him

28:58

off. He ended up settling for a draw

29:00

because he gassed out so hard. He nearly

29:02

died afterwards and they found out he was

29:04

so dehydrated because he said, I didn't drink

29:06

water. I didn't know I was supposed to

29:09

as a boxer.

29:11

Heavyweight division is wild. And Nganu, I think, could

29:13

if he wanted to. He

29:16

hits hard enough and has

29:18

a sturdy enough foundational base.

29:21

It's unorthodox as we saw against Fury. But

29:24

it works. They've adapted. They've made

29:26

it work. Again, I liked a lot of the body

29:28

language and the movement and the fluidity of

29:31

Nganu in the first two minutes of that

29:33

first round before he switched stances and destruction

29:35

came. But

29:37

I don't know if that's the right move

29:39

for him. You could do big

29:41

money fight against Wilder. You could eventually

29:44

do a rematch against Fury, you know,

29:46

especially if Nganu decided he

29:48

wanted to step down considerably and start building

29:50

back up, you know, maybe show up on

29:52

the next Saudi card in the co-main or

29:55

one of the earlier fights for less money,

29:57

but to gain that experience. If

29:59

he wanted to, I don't know. Actually think he could

30:01

so which goes back to my original opening thing of

30:03

we were trying to figure out when handicapping this fight

30:07

How much was was was a fluke in that

30:09

first way? How much was it the

30:11

the fat fury? Um It's

30:14

like a little bit of both. It's like a

30:16

little bit of both We did see it in Ghana

30:18

who he might not be Bo Jackson,

30:20

but he's way better than he should be Without

30:23

question. He's a freak. He's an absolute freak.

30:26

I Don't want to

30:28

see what he has if he wants to Is

30:31

more intriguing right now than what's available at the

30:33

PFL? It just is and if a to just

30:35

you know knocked out Ryan Bader, you know

30:37

brutally and I would like to see that

30:40

fight But you know, is

30:42

that a marquee pay-per-view? How much is the

30:44

PFL happy? Because this looks like

30:46

it could be the end of Francis's boxing

30:48

career Or is the

30:50

PFL does this damage Francis's brand for

30:52

what the PFL wants to do? That's

30:55

all interesting questions This make him a

30:57

vulnerable MMA fighter now because he has

30:59

not fought an MMA Since

31:01

what January of 22 against Cyril gone. Yeah,

31:03

it has been a long time.

31:06

There are a lot of questions. I Don't

31:09

know. I don't know what Francis does next But if

31:11

I did have to guess I know the heart in

31:13

him I do think he comes back I do think

31:15

what he said leading up to this fight about you

31:17

know I'm only just beginning I think AJ's right

31:19

if you wanted to continue to add to this even at

31:22

37 We don't worry about that age as much. I mean

31:24

look at what George Foreman did at 45 Give

31:27

what Mike Tyson's trying to do at

31:29

58 People

31:32

I love people criticizing me for you know,

31:34

almost supporting that fight I guess I just

31:36

sort of nothing. I mean

31:38

this one surprised me But like nothing surprises

31:40

me anymore combat sports, especially in this era

31:43

of crazy crossover ridiculous

31:45

youtubers that Damn,

31:48

that's really matched. I mean it is it's brilliantly

31:50

matched but uh We

31:52

do have a lot of interesting stuff going on

31:54

in the regular heavyweight division where we don't need

31:57

that We've got fury usic coming up. We've got

31:59

it in May We've got a

32:01

rematch after that. I mean, you just saw

32:03

Joseph Parker kind of put himself back on

32:05

the map. You have Philip Urgovich, who's the

32:07

number one contender for Usyk's IBF title and

32:09

will become the IBF champion after

32:12

the first Fury Usyk fight because then

32:14

he'll be contractually, you know, he's taken a step

32:17

aside money, but he's no longer going to do

32:19

that. So Usyk will be stripped regardless. But

32:22

AJ reviving himself, as I said earlier,

32:24

is just monumental for boxing right now.

32:26

It's great. You would want your big

32:29

pillars and stars to be able to

32:31

reload, regroup like this. He

32:34

is back. He is back. And I

32:36

do think it's Ben Davison. And it doesn't

32:38

necessarily mean, I mean, Ben Davison had a

32:40

lot of success and was a big part

32:42

of Tyson Fury coming back from near death

32:44

and depression and obesity and all of that.

32:47

But then Fury kind of kicked him to the side and said,

32:49

you did good, but I do need this change. I

32:52

need to be more offensive. I need to be the Kronk style. And in the end,

32:54

you know, it served him very well. But Ben

32:56

Davison is a good fighter, technically, defensively, seems

32:58

to get on even though he's very young,

33:00

right? He was like 25 when he was

33:02

training Fury. He was the wonderkind. He

33:05

seems to get along well with the fighters. AJ's

33:08

in the spot where he was sort of

33:10

satellite still connected with Derek James. But Derek

33:12

James was very busy. Now he's got Ryan

33:14

Garcia. And I think the comfortability

33:16

of being there with Ben Davison the first time

33:18

last fight, I think he's pushed old Derek James

33:20

to the side. And he did the same thing

33:22

to Robert Garcia, to Virgil Hunter. I mean, he's

33:24

bounced around lately. But Oscar De

33:27

La Hoya used to bounce around a lot too, particularly in

33:29

the second half of his career. And

33:31

sometimes, you know, Miguel Cotto too, to some

33:33

degree, but when Miguel Cotto found Freddie Roach,

33:35

it just locked and it worked. And when

33:37

Oscar De La Hoya found Lloyd Sr., it

33:39

just worked. It was somebody that just motivated

33:41

him, didn't take shit. It just, you know,

33:43

had the right thing to say, pushed him

33:45

in different areas, expanded and

33:47

enhanced certain parts of his game. That

33:52

connection with Ben Davison is nasty. And

33:55

I think it's done a lot mentally, along

33:57

with whatever the changes AJ has gone through

33:59

personally. to sort of rewire and reload,

34:01

it's working. It's working. That fury fight,

34:03

if fury gets through Usyk twice, is

34:05

a big

34:08

one. That's what we want. I mean,

34:10

that's one of those era-defining fights. We're

34:12

going to have

34:14

an Undisputed Champion soon for a

34:16

minute, and then that belt's going to go over to

34:18

Philip Urgovich. But all right, enough

34:20

babbling here, okay? Have a good time

34:23

talking to you. Thank you. MK4Ever,

34:26

big news next week. Thank you. UFFC

34:29

99, Saturday night, post-show here. Don't miss it. Luke Thomas,

34:31

you'll see him. I am BC, but

34:33

I'm out of here, all right? I

34:36

mean, that was kind of gross. It was well-timed, but

34:38

it was just, I mean, enough. I don't, this has

34:40

to be, this has to be the end. This

34:45

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