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“Ngannou’s out cold, ladies and gentlemen! He’s not even moving!” This was how the DAZN commentator salivated over the sight of Francis Ngannou lying motionless on the Riyadh canvas. Out cold even before he hit the floor, his legs buckled horribly as he went down, flipping his torso back with such force that his head bounced on impact. The spectacle called, at the very least, for some alarm. Not that you detected much from the man with the microphone. Or from Eddie Hearn, who leapt into the ring for his photo op with Anthony Joshua before anybody had the faintest idea about Ngannou’s welfare.
Even by boxing’s standards, it was a gruesome carry-on. For Ngannou, unlike Joshua, was not a professional of 10 years’ standing in this sport. He was competing in only his second fight, having transferred from mixed martial arts to satiate the voracious public appetite for these gaudy crossover bouts. The hype merchants talked up his chances, given he had only lost to Tyson Fury by split decision last October. Except Fury treated that occasion with complacency, as if it were an exhibition. Joshua did anything but, undertaking a ferocious training camp and unleashing a devastating knockout.
The video replay from behind Joshua as he detonates the right hand is especially disturbing. Ngannou should already have been counted out by this stage, with the knockdown a few seconds earlier leaving him helpless and befuddled. He leaves his head exposed by tentatively extending his left arm, and as Joshua uncoils himself into that brutal overhand right, his expression is one of pure terror. Punch of the century? It ought to be ineligible for consideration. The aesthetic of an expert crumpling a novice is not one that boxing should be celebrating.
And yet it does, shamelessly. Last week, it was announced that influencer Jake Paul – fresh from gloating, after a victory over subpar journeyman Ryan Bourland, that he was on a path to a world title – would be fighting Mike Tyson, who turns 58 this summer, in Dallas in July. The cringeworthiness of Paul seeking bragging rights against a man 30 years his senior is self-evident. You also wonder what can possibly be gained. What would be more reprehensible, Paul flattening a legend approaching pensionable age, or Tyson reminding the upstart in savage terms what a boxer truly looks like?
Promoters calculate that this debate will not be uppermost in the minds of those who watch. After all, the event is being screened live on Netflix. But the sight in Saudi Arabia of the prone, inert Ngannou is a reminder that there is a flipside to this cynicism. It is a warning that sooner or later, boxing’s rush to stage these crass mismatches is going to leave somebody seriously injured or worse. Joshua lined up Ngannou as though he were a punching bag at a fairground. Was there not a soul in the sport who flinched at how this looked?
Increasingly, you doubt it. Boxing, always one of the least reflective realms, cares only about the next payday. There is no indication that the second-round flattening of Ngannou will give Hearn pause. On the contrary, he was immediately heralding Joshua as the “most dangerous heavyweight in the world”. Well, he certainly looked dangerous against a neophyte. Too dangerous, in all honesty.
The tone at the press conference conveyed no such concern, of course. “I didn’t feel the punch,” Ngannou said. “I think that’s what the knockout is about.” And everyone laughed. There was no exploration of the underlying issue of whether Ngannou should have been in a ring with an opponent of Joshua’s calibre in the first place.
But there urgently needs to be. These were the words uttered by Hearn himself, when the prospect of Joshua versus Ngannou was first floated last April: “You cannot in a million years, with Ngannou’s ability in boxing, go in and compete technically – not just with AJ, but with any top-20 heavyweight in the world.” Even with that rather giant caveat, he still made the fight. And he will make more in the same vein, emboldened by the retinue of YouTube sycophants who follow his every move, telling him it is what the people want. Boxing is riding a wave of gimmickry, and it could yet come at a ghastly cost.
Crossover boxing freak shows like Joshua-Ngannou should be stopped before it is too late
Gross mismatch in Riyadh points to folly of staging gimmickry bouts involving professional boxers — a trend that could yet end in tragedy