In 2017 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in what was known as "The Money Fight," former UFC champion Conor McGregor faced multi-division boxing champion Floyd Mayweather, who needed a win to go 50-0. Mayweather was a massive favorite against McGregor, a champion at featherweight and lightweight in the UFC who was making his pro boxing debut.
McGregor came out aggressively and Mayweather, as was widely predicted, allowed him to attack. He wanted to get a sense of what McGregor had, how fast he was, the angle from which he threw his punches and how hard he hit.
For much of the first four or so rounds, Mayweather did little but keep his guard high and back away from McGregor. And that allowed McGregor, a great finisher in the UFC, to try to land that history-changing shot.
A minute into the fight, McGregor landed a clean straight left hand, though it didn't do much damage. And McGregor never was able to get Mayweather into trouble and Mayweather went on to win by TKO.
On Friday, another former UFC champion, Francis Ngannou, will face another highly regarded boxer, former unified champion Anthony Joshua in the main event of a card streamed on PPV.com on at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Joshua will likely take the exact opposite approach of Mayweather when the bell rings to start their important 10-round bout. McGregor was a KO artist, but he used all eight striking weapons to finish his opponents in MMA: Punches, kicks, knees and elbows. Ngannou, though, is primarily a ferocious puncher whose success comes via the explosive power in his fists.
"Francis can definitely punch," said WBC/lineal heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, who was dropped by Ngannou via a left hook in the third round of their Oct. 28 bout in Riyadh but who went on to win a controversial split decision.
Joshua can punch, too, and while he's unlikely to stand flat-footed in front of Ngannou and throw bombs until one of them is out, his best chance to win will be to try what Hall of Famer Shane Mosley used to call "power boxing." He's going to close the distance to get to the mid-range he excels at and try to force Ngannou backward.
Now, that's no guarantee of success, because the left hook Ngannou threw that dropped Fury was a counter shot in response to a right from Fury. Ngannou showed a particularly good sense of timing in that fight, and if Joshua attacks indiscriminately, expect Ngannou to plant his feet and wing a counter in Joshua's direction.
Joshua, though, is at his best when he's confident and carrying the fight to his opponent. He's vastly better when he's fighting downhill and looking to hurt his opponent than he is when he's cautious and careful.
Ngannou can turn him cautious if he begins to have success with his jab. He didn't do much with it against Fury, but his jab can be an important weapon if he uses it to good advantage because he hits so hard, even with it.
If he goes up and down with the jab and then uses a double jab before bringing the heat with the right hand, Ngannou can walk Joshua into something. If Ngannou manages to hurt Joshua, expect him to push the accelerator to the floor and go for it. In the Fury fight, he hadn't fought 10 rounds previoiusly and so he was at least somewhat concerned with saving his energy.
But he went the 10 easily and trainer Dewey Cooper said he could easily go 10 on Friday with no issues if he needs to. As a result, he won't be so concerned about conserving energy.
Joshua has competed in boxing for a far longer time than Ngannou, though, and that may ultimately be the difference. He probably thinks the game better at this stage than Ngannou does, and that might help him squeak out those close rounds which could go either way.
Joshua will probably push the pace a little, but he'll vary his attack and the intensity. He'll probably try to make Ngannou fight when he doesn't want to and then use his strength when Ngannou decides to open up and try to slow the fight down.
This seems like a fight that is going to end by KO or TKO somehow, so I'll say Joshua will stop him in seven. I see it being competitive for the first four rounds or so, but as Joshua begins to touch Ngannou more regularly, Joshua's power figures to win the giant from Cameroon down.