There may never be as much pressure on a boxer as it is when said boxer is a British heavyweight. The expectations on them are enormous, and the doubters are often plentiful, even for a legendary figure like Lennox Lewis.
Lewis won the Olympic gold medal at super heavyweight in 1988 in Seoul, South Korea, and went on to become one of the five best heavyweights who ever lived. He defeated Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield and Riddick Bowe threw his belt into a trash can rather than fight him in the professional ranks (Lewis stopped Bowe after two rounds in the 1988 Olympic gold medal bout).
Yet, there were many in the United Kingdom who would question Lewis's nerve, criticize him for having a glass chin and otherwise dismiss him as an elite.
Lewis proved the doubters wrong in the end, and he's not only enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame, he is revered as one of the handful of the greatest heavyweights to ever set foot in a ring.
And there's where there is a parallel with Anthony Joshua, the 2012 Olympic gold medalist at super heavyweight and the former unified heavyweight champion who, on Friday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, faces ex-UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou in a bout that will be streamed on PPV.com.
The pressure on Joshua against Ngannou is enormous, as it has been throughout his career. Joshua, who is a -450 favorite at the DraftKings sports book, is 27-3 with 24 KOs but still has questions to answer.
Jim Lampley, a boxing Hall of Famer who is most known for his eloquent work as the play-by-play man for HBO Sports, rightly noted that expectations for Joshua are massive. (Editor's note: Lampley and I will do a live chat together on Friday on the PPV.com broadcast, in which viewers can ask us questions and get our thoughts on the fights as the card unfolds).
"Absolutely and I think he's been under extraordinary pressure his entire career, in part because of the expectations that have been created by, Number 1, just the way he looks," Lampley told KevinIole.com.
Joshua stands 6 feet 6 and generally fights around 245 pounds. He's a hulk of a man with broad shoulders, bulging biceps and a massive chest who looks like he could be a bodybuilding star if he cared to try that.
"He looks like what a heavyweight champion is supposed to look like," Lampley said. "Number 2, it's Great Britain and they still very strongly believe that they created and invented the sport and that they are the cradle of boxing. For a British heavyweight to assume that crown and control it has been their holy grail for a long time. Joshua had a chance to do that after his epic victory over Wladimir Klitschko in Wembley Stadium [in 2017]."
Joshua stopped Klitschko in the 11th of an incredible slugfest, and made three consecutive defenses of the belt after that before he was shockingly stopped by Andy Ruiz in New York on June 1, 2019. Ruiz put Joshua down four times in that bout and stopped him in the seventh. Though Joshua regained the belt later that year in a tentative,tactical battle, he's never regained that place he once held.
Lampley pointed out how Joshua has an opportunity, though, to make a big step forward. Ngannou made his pro boxing debut as a 37-year-old on Oct. 28 in Riyadh against another Brit, WBC/lineal heavyweight Tyson Fury. Fury won a split decision over Ngannou who did vastly better than expected and dropped Fury in the third.
Lampley said that if Joshua performs better against Ngannou than Fury, it will be a big step forward for him.
Ngannou is vastly better now than he was in October, trainer Dewey Cooper told KevinIole.com. And Lampley expects Ngannou to be better for the simple fact that he knows how well he performed against the guy at the time who was widely regarded as the world's No. 1 heavyweight.
"I'm sure Ngannou will enter the ring with a far higher level of confidence than at the moment when he entered the ring against Fury," Lampley said. "He improved a lot in that period of time. So now, A.J. has another very difficult challenge in front of him, and he's fallen short a couple of times in the past against guys who you didn't think were going to be enormous challenges for him."
Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing
Anthony Joshua and promoter Eddie Hearn pose during the arrival ceremony Monday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.