Francis Ngannou was crushed by Anthony Joshua in Saudi Arabia on Friday, brutally knocked out in the second round of his second professional boxing fight.

The former UFC heavyweight champion went down three times, including a brutal final right hand that ended it all, and it was a much different experience to last October when he faced Tyson Fury and lost a 10-round split decision.

“I’m sorry guys, I let you all down,” Ngannou said. “Today was a bad day at the office, but tomorrow will be a different day. Thanks for all the love.”

Ngannou is a likeable guy, at least when it comes to his boxing efforts. Confident, but not arrogant. He clearly took it seriously and tried to do his best. Delusional? Sure, but in some ways—not all—that’s a good, even necessary thing for any professional fighter to be. You have to believe you can win to have a chance.

Against Tyson Fury, who was treating this all as “a bit of fun” and clearly hadn’t trained much, Ngannou shocked the world even without a win. Not only was Fury out of shape and noticeably cushioned even for him – he wasn’t exactly a “lovely body” guy – but then he took a comically bad approach, trying to lean in and clinch with someone who, by pedigree, was significantly better than Fury at that sort of thing, not to mention the fact that Ngannou is much stronger physically.

Ngannou kind of bullied Fury and dropped him once. Judging by how boxing fights are actually scored, I thought Fury won, but it was one of the most uninspiring wins you’ll ever see. And the real winner was really Francis Ngannou, who shouldn’t have been able to compete with Tyson Fury like that.

On Friday, the chickens came home to roost against Anthony Joshua. To be fair, Joshua did what a decent world-class boxer should do against someone who is recent to the craft. Ngannou was actually doing well in the first round until an ill-advised switch to southpaw saw him slammed to the canvas in brief order.

Changing attitude is something that very few seasoned professionals can do well at the highest level; it’s very, very hard to do well. Ngannou’s attempt against Joshua is an example of the downside of the aforementioned necessary illusion. At best, he just didn’t understand that he wasn’t good enough to do it because no one showed him what a bad idea that was. AJ helped him figure that out quickly.

Ngannou never went back to being a southpaw, but he didn’t get many opportunities either. When he got knocked down in the first round, Joshua saw everything he wanted to see. He’s a three-belt heavyweight champion as a pro and an Olympic gold medalist 12 years ago. I tend to agree with John Fury that Joshua has learned on the job and gotten better at a lot of things over time, and the recent look he got in training camp over the last few years has also improved him.

In the second round, Joshua waited for his chance. He dropped Ngannou for the second time and realistically, referee Ricky Gonzalez could have stopped the fight at that point. When the action resumed, Ngannou sat idle and AJ didn’t cheat.

Right hand. Ballgame — on the way to pure devastation.

Photo: Richard Pelham/Getty Images

After the dust settled, Ngannou was being urged to continue his boxing career by Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs), but the 37-year-old is currently 0-2 and this kind of one-sided beating will significantly reduce his marketability as a professional boxer.

So should Ngannou keep boxing?

The brief answer is yes, at least if the money is there. He signed with MMA promotion PFL after a bitter split with UFC, but he hasn’t fought in the sport in more than two years, and at his age, such a long layoff from any competition risks seeing you come back, having lost “it” in the process.

But who would the money be against? If the Saudis – who don’t care about money like a typical fight promoter, because they have an infinite supply of it – pay for Ngannou vs. Deontay Wilder, there’s a monstrous plot there, even if Wilder is coming off a disastrous performance against Joseph Parker in December and has never been less attractive on the market. Again, it doesn’t matter to the Saudis any more than it does to Eddie Hearn, Frank Warren or someone who invests their own money, but it doesn’t matter either NO material. And if not Deontay, then who?

The difficult truth is that there are far more professional boxers than just the top names that Ngannou could get fired up against. When the idea of ​​him taking up boxing was first floated a few years ago, he met with Eddie Hearn, who wanted to push him straight into a fight with Joshua. At the time, Joshua wasn’t interested in a “gimmick” fight.

The reason Hearn wanted to make the Joshua vs. Ngannou fight happen immediately was plain, and he admitted it openly: if Ngannou tried to “get his feet damp” by fighting some weaker professional boxer, he could simply lose and squander his chances of making a ton of money over the course of at least a single fight.

That’s true now. If Ngannou tries to fight anyone above the total score, to get one or two wins in the ring, he has a very high risk of just losing, and losing at a level far below Fury and Joshua. Someone like Michael Coffie or Faiga Opelu, not some top names or contenders, could just crush him. And then what?

Ngannou continuing to box in this manner carries a great risk, not only to his career in the sweet science, but to whatever is left of his MMA career. This loss, the manner in which it happened, will sting for some time. Ngannou is proud, and while rational logic says he has nothing to be ashamed of for the way his boxing “career” has turned out, rational logic is for those on the outside. He made it happen. The money will ease his part, but it is also on the verge of being significantly diminished, if not dried up, and at his age, time is running out for him to earn more in gigantic chunks.

The decision Ngannou makes about his future is crucial. And I’m still at least a little interested, because he’s easily made me a fan of both sports.

Both Anthony Joshua and Joseph Parker picked up impressive victories in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia last weekend in what could prove to be the most vital wins of their careers.

Parker – despite twice trying the canvas – outboxed a tired and often timid Zhilei Zhang. The Kiwi was disciplined and effective right from the start throughout the 36 minutes of action, and under the watchful eye of Andy Lee, he was able to maintain his composure and take risks despite losing both rounds 10-8 in the fight. Zhang’s quick hands won out on a few occasions, but Parker’s ability to smother most of those attacks with his pointed reflexes and quick footwork negated any real threat of stopping the gigantic Chinese heavyweight.

This was Parker’s fifth fight since the start of 2023, and his rhythm and winning dynamics were on display at the Kingdom Arena.

We often quickly judge a heavyweight after a loss, consigning him to the growing scrapyard of former gigantic threats in the division. Perhaps this is because he lacks the opportunity to move up a weight class like the weight classes below. A welterweight’s destitute performance, for example, can easily – and often be attributed to a tough weight cut or being outgrown in the division; he gets a tidy slate when he resumes his career in pastures modern.

It’s gratifying to see such marked progress from the heavyweight and with his modern coaching team headed up by the excellent and experienced Andy Lee, the increased activity is a major factor in the modern and improved performances.

Wins over Deontay Wilder and Zhilei Zhang in the space of three-and-a-half months have catapulted Parker into the division’s top four, and he now looks most worthy of another title shot after Tyson Fury, Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua jostle for medal spots.

The same goes for Anthony Joshua. Now, with Ben Davison at his side, Joshua has fought four times in 12 months and is as close as we ever thought he would be to regaining his best form in the division. AJ has regained the earth-shattering power that allowed him to scuttle through the early stages of his pro career, stopping Otto Wallin and Francis Ngannou in a combined seven rounds – something his domestic foe Tyson Fury was unable to do on both occasions.

He said it himself before this weekend’s competition. “This is the first time since 2017 that I’ve had three fights in a row, and being consistent has paid off again,” he said. “That’s why fighters do so well on their way to the top, because they fight every other week and they look amazing. Once you get to the top, everything slows down and the only way out is retirement. I’m trying to rebuild myself and get that activity.”

It has become the norm for many champions to fight once, maybe twice, per calendar year, especially in the heavier weights. And rarely is it because of the desire of the individual fighter. Belt politics, obligation, and teams playing hardball with other champions often lead to delay after delay when you are sitting on the mountaintop, but in a sport where you are protecting your undefeated record used most importantly, we may be seeing the beginning of a shift towards risk rewarding.

There is no doubt that Saudi Arabia’s injection of cash into the sport helps with this level of activity. Their desire to cleanse the sport of their terrible human rights record is unquenchable and however long this obsession with boxing (and snooker, Formula 1, golf, WWE and football) lasts, the more opportunities, especially for heavyweights, to fight in what could become a carousel division will be available.

Beyond the bigger picture, it’s tough not to be pleased with the progress Parker and Joshua have shown over the past 15 months. If more fighters follow in their footsteps, who knows how the heavyweight landscape could look.

The next update will be on Monday, April 1st. This isn’t a amusing joke, it’s just the date it will happen.

Ranked fights during this period:

• cruiser weight: (8) Arsen Goulamirian vs. Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, March. thirty
• average weight: (7) Elijah Garcia vs. Kyrone Davis, March 30
• average weight: (9) Nathan Heaney vs. Brad Pauls, March 16
• Super Welterweight: (1) Tim Tszyu vs. (3) Sebastian Fundora, March 30
• Delicate: (4) William Zepeda vs. (7) Maxi Hughes, March. 16
• Delicate: (10) Raymond Muratalla vs Xolisani Ndongeni, March. 29
• Super Featherweight: (5) Oscar Valdez vs. Liam Wilson, March 29
• Super bantam weight: (6) Sam Goodman vs. Mark Schleibs, March 13
• Flyweight: (3) Julio Cesar Martinez vs. Angelino Cordova, March 30
• P4P for women: (6) Seniesa Estrada vs. (7) Yokasta Valle, March 29

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Comments: Boxing rankings are fun, frustrating and weird and should be viewed subjectively no matter who does them, unless they are done by the people who unfortunately matter – the sanctioning bodies – in which case it should be viewed as a ill joke.

The reason it’s amusing/frustrating/weird is because you can poke holes in it All. Take the up-to-date top four here – Usyk, Fury, Joshua, Parker. Who has the most momentum there? Maybe AJ in a sense, but in a more real sense it’s really Joseph Parker.

But it’s uncomplicated to forget now, and High Ed Hearn would rather you did, that AJ wasn’t getting rave reviews for his wins over Jermaine Franklin and Robert Helenius, or maybe he was a world-class boxing champion treating an MMA fighter like a novice boxer, for once he’s True? reason to assume that unless you’re making money promoting him, he’s the best heavyweight in the world right now.

On the other hand, I liked his look in December against Otto Wallin, and that returned his spite (!) and showed strongly in the match with Ngannou. AJ was there to emphasize the only thing he could during the fight: that Francis Ngannou should not fight him in a boxing ring. And he succeeded. No matter how cordial AJ was before or after, he threatened Ngannou in the ring and came to knock him out, which he did.

But you can’t put AJ above Usyk or Fury, even considering how poorly Fury fought Ngannou last year and how much he had to turn his fight with the MMA star into a slow-burning bore to pull off a well-deserved but uninspiring victory. I tend to agree with Tyson that “style makes the fight” would be a substantial factor in a fight between him and AJ, and that’s what we saw in their fights with Ngannou. AJ’s style against “The Predator” was “seek and destroy.” Fury’s style was “show up in bad shape for a bit of fun and a substantial, uncomplicated payday – oops, I’m on my butt!”

Usyk, of course, defeated Joshua twice, tidy and square. Maybe a sharpened Joshua, who I think has probably gotten into a good rhythm and has been looking at Usyk with different eyes since the rematch in the camps, could finally beat Usyk. But maybe not! Maybe Usyk is just not right for him and always will be.

Meanwhile, Usyk didn’t look amazing when he beat Daniel Dubois last year, and now he’s scheduled to fight Fury in May. If both are fit, I still feel like Fury is a bad match for Usyk. Styles again.

Then there’s Joseph Parker, who won the title many years ago and is still only 32 years senior and now has the two biggest wins of his career over Deontay Wilder and Zhilei Zhang, two fearsome fighters he’s defeated in boxing. Both Wilder and Zhang are flawed fighters and the results were similar.

Zhang was hazardous and knocked Parker down twice, but Joe Parker clearly won that fight, and Zhang has only himself to blame for not having 12 rounds of fuel left in his game. He’s in his 40s, so it’s never going to be something that’s right for him. Wilder was hazardous, of course, but he did absolutely nothing for the entire 12 rounds. Parker was ready to try, but he just never did.

So what’s Parker’s impression, really? REALLY? And that’s what I mean – holes in everything, if you want to do that. It’s a really solid foursome right now, but you could find a way to discredit any of them pretty easily.

Let’s do this again a bit, just to close this section, for fun. Zhang drops to sixth place with the loss, because now you have to go back to respecting the official result of his fight with Filip Hrgovic, who didn’t exactly airy up the world as a pro, but is sturdy and competent.

Being No. 6 is nothing to scoff at, and he remains someone who would be hazardous for about half a fight against anyone, but maybe Joe Joyce was just made for Zhang. Joyce doesn’t and/or can’t defend himself. A terrible flaw for a guy who has incredible power, good timing, and basic boxing skills. No defense gives him a chance to call you out before the tank empties. How good is Zhang?!?!

In compact, they are all terrible.

Upcoming Fights: (8) Jared Anderson vs. Ryad MerhyApril 13… (1) Oleksandry Usyk vs. (2) Tyson FuryMay 18

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Upcoming Fights: (8) Arsen Goulamirian vs. Gilberto “Zurdo” RamirezMarch 30… (1) Jai Opetaia vs. Mairis BriedisMay 18th… (2) Chris Billam-Smith vs. (3) Richard RiakporheTBA

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Upcoming Fights: (1) Dmitry Bivol vs. (2) Artur Beterbiev1st of June … (7) Oleksandr Gvozdyk vs. David BenavidezTBA

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Upcoming Fights: (8) Diego Pacheco vs. Shawn McCalmanApril 6… (1) Canelo Alvarez vs. (4) Jaime MunguiaMay 4

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Upcoming Fights: (9) Nathan Heaney vs. Brad PaulsMarch 16

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Comments: Israil Madrimov jumps to No. 1 after beating Magomed Kurbanov to win the WBA title in Saudi Arabia. Kurbanov was never the most impressive fighter or anything, and his two best wins are questionable, but Madrimov just torched him and took him to the woodshed. In a division that has largely stagnated, that’s impressive and essential.

Xander Zayas is No. 1. 10. I agree it’s a bit too early to say for sure – same with Agyarko, but what they’ve done so far is as impressive as any other viable option.

Upcoming Fights: (1) Tim Tszyu vs (3) Sebastian FundoraMarch 30… (7) Yoenis Tellez vs. Joseph JacksonApril 26

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Upcoming Fights: (3) Jaron Ennis vs. (7) Cody CrowleyMay 4

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Upcoming Fights: (1) Devin Haney vs. (7) Ryan GarciaApril 20… (4) Jack Catterall vs. Josh TaylorApril 27

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Upcoming Fights: (4) William Zepeda vs. (7) Maxi HughesMarch 16… (10) Raymond Muratalla vs Xolisani NdongeniMarch 29… (1) Vasiliy Lomachenko vs. (9) George Kambosos JrMay 11

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Upcoming Fights: (4) Oscar Valdez vs. Liam WilsonMarch 29… (1) Joe Cordina vs. Anthony CacaceMay 18

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Comments: I even had Vargas vs. Ball on my card, but if anyone deserved to win, it was Nick Ball. I think he made a bigger impression in that fight than Rey Vargas. But as annoying as Vargas was, he was still competitive.

Despite this, Vargas loses one spot, Ball advances several times. They should rematch. Unless the WBC orders it – and even if they do – I don’t know if Vargas will be interested.

Upcoming Fights: TBA

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Upcoming Fights: (6) Sam Goodman vs. Mark SchleibsMarch 13… (1) Naoya Inoue vs. (2) Luis NeryMay 6

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Upcoming Fights: TBA

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Upcoming Fights: (7) Suzumi Takayama vs. Akio FurutaniApril 25

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Upcoming Fights: TBA

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Upcoming Fights: TBA

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Upcoming Fights: (1) Yudai Shigeoka vs (5) Melvin JerusalemMarch 31 … (2) Ginjiro Shigeoka vs ArAr AndalesMarch 31

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Upcoming Fights: (6) Seniesa Estrada vs. (7) Yokasta ValleMarch 29