Heavyweight contender Filp Hrgovic wasn’t impressed with Anthony Joshua’s destruction of the one-fight novice Francis Ngannou last Friday night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Hrgovic quite rightly points out that this kind of outcome was expected when an inexperienced fighter with a 0-1 record was matched against a former two-time heavyweight world champion.
Ngannou (0-2) didn’t belong in the ring with Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs), and the fight should have never been sanctioned in the first place. That’s the most troubling aspect of it all. Why was this fight permitted to happen?
The Illusion of Progress
Interestingly, Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, was as happy as a lark after the fight, calling AJ the “baddest man on the planet” for having beaten Ngannou and ignoring the fact that this guy had no business being in the ring with him in the first place.
Ngannou is just part of the motley group of fighters that Hearn has lined up to resurrect Joshua’s career to repackage him to the boxing public to make him look new and improved, which is impossible.
You can’t bring AJ back to where he was because he’s gotten older and doesn’t possess the psyche to be a top-level boxer. AJ’s diminishing mental toughness and skills can’t be camouflaged by Hearn matching him repeatedly against non-top-tier fighters. That may fool the slow-witted fans, but the ones who can actually think see what he’s doing.
Hearn is picking out mediocre opposition that even AJ can mow down, enabling him to tell the public, ‘See, Joshua is back. He’s the #1 fighter in the world.‘
It’s just straight-up trickery, and people are too unworldly to see the game that is being played on them.
Joshua is NOT improving. Hearn has backed AJ away from fighting world-class opposition after Oleksandr Usyk schooled him for the second time.
Ngannou: No Match for Established Heavyweights
“I’m not so impressed. I thought it was going to end that way. That’s the way fights have ended,” said Filip Hrgovic to the iFL TV YouTube channel when asked about his reaction to Anthony Joshua’s second-round knockout win against the 0-1 novice Franks Ngannous last Friday night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
As you can see, Hrgovic dismisses Joshua’s victory over Ngannou, recognizing what this fight was all about. This was a sly way to try and rebuild Joshua’s reputation as a dominant heavyweight by matching him against someone who was no threat to beating him.
Joshua’s Victory “Not a Huge Deal”
“A guy [Francis Ngannou] who has one fight fighting the former two-time heavyweight champion of the world,” said Hrgovic. “So that’s the way it should be. I was expecting something similar result. I’m not so impressed. I’m not sure what to be impressed with. Joshua did what he needed to do. So, it’s not a huge deal.
“I think he [Ngannou] would finish in that way against a lot of top heavyweights. That knockout was so stunning. I don’t think he would have so much chance with any top heavyweights,” said Hrgovic.
