There is a huge night of boxing in Saudi Arabia on Friday (22:00) and the Riyahd card is highlighted by a heavyweight showdown between Anthony Joshua and Francis Ngannou.
Ngannou went mighty close to beating WBC world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in October and the Predator had the unbeaten Gypsy King floored and hurt in the third round of that contest.
Joshua has recovered from a pair of defeats to three-belt heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk and AJ will look to continue his resurgence in this fight.
- Under 6.5 rounds
- Ngannou to win by stoppage
Expect A Slugfest In Saudi
Friday night’s contest between Joshua and Ngannou has been billed as knockout chaos and it could be an early night in the headline bout.
AJ has become more circumspect in his approach as his career has developed and the Watford fighter has battled with a higher level of opponent, but it could be a throwback fight on Friday night.
The British boxer’s trainer Ben Davison has indicated that Joshua will adopt an aggressive and high-output approach in Riyadh and it may well be that Ngannou forces those tactics from the 34-year-old.
The Predator stood in front of Fury, when the pair clashed in October, and he was able to take the best shots of the Gypsy King and fire back with his own punches.
Joshua carries more power than the WBC champion and there looks to be every chance that this bout develops into a toe-to-toe shootout. At the prices, backing under 6.5 rounds looks a solid bet.
Predator could hurt Prey
Joshua was dropped four times in his first fight with Andy Ruiz. AJ also hit the canvas when taking on Wladimir Klitschko and there have been clear indications of vulnerability to power in fights against Dillian Whyte and Oleksandr Usyk.
If the Watford man opts to stand in front of Ngannou, that will play to the strengths of the Predator and the Cameroonian looks a huge price to win by stoppage.
It’s only one-fight form, but the 37-year-old was seriously impressive when dropping Fury in October and there could easily be more to come from Ngannou.
Of course, the former MMA star is still very much an unknown quantity in the boxing ring, but uncertainty doesn’t always have to be a negative and it’s clearly quite possible that we are yet to see the best of what Ngannou has to offer.
You are being asked to take the excellent performance against Fury at face value and assume that the Gypsy King was something like the WBC champion we saw against Deontay Wilder, which is a big ask, but the price of an Ngannou stoppage victory is big enough to believe what we saw in October.
