Matt Brown: Francis Ngannou needs ‘almost a superhuman amount of power’ to knock out Tyson Fury
In many ways, Francis Ngannou already scored a win by securing a huge payday with his boxing match against Tyson Fury in October. But does the former UFC heavyweight champion actually have a realistic shot of winning in the ring?
UFC welterweight Matt Brown doesn’t like Ngannou’s chances, although he understands the novelty surrounding his transition into boxing, because he’s essentially going to be living under the guise of the unknown. During his MMA career, Ngannou earned his reputation as arguably the hardest hitter in heavyweight history, but he’s never had a single boxing match in his life, yet he’s about to go face someone like Fury, who has been lauded as one of the top fighters of his generation.
“This whole consensus that these guys have chances in there, and it’s not like he doesn’t have any chance at all,” Brown said on The Fighter vs. The Writer. “We know he definitely hits hard. [Deontay] Wilder dropped Fury so it’s not like he doesn’t have any chance at all, but come on. You are literally doing a different sport.
“I wish that’s what people would realize. It is not fighting. It is boxing. It is a fighting sport but all of your weapons are taken away except for the two that this man has been practicing his whole life with. You’ve practiced with all these other weapons, and that’s all time he was only working on those two weapons, and you’re talking about Tyson Fury, one of the greatest heavyweights.”
Brown argues that the attraction to fights like Ngannou vs. Fury is no different than the buzz surrounding a potential cage fight between billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.
It’s the attraction that gets people interested much more than the actual skills that will be displayed in the fight.
“When we talk about, ‘What is his chance?’ Maybe it’s 50 percent, maybe it’s zero percent. That’s it. We don’t know,” Brown explained. “We’ve never seen him box, so we don’t know. That’s what makes it kind of exciting to watch.
“But at the same time, I feel like it’s going to be like [Conor] McGregor vs. [Floyd] Mayweather or this [Elon] Musk vs. [Mark] Zuckerberg thing, where it’s exciting to think about and the promos are going to be great, the pump up’s going to be great. Everybody’s going to have a big party, the bars are going to be packed out. Everybody’s going to get the pay-per-view, and then around 12:30 at night and it’s in the sixth, seventh round, we’re going to be way more interested in the bourbon and the Coors Light, everybody’s going to be interested in partying and hanging out with their friends than this fight, because this is f****** r*******, what are we doing here?”
As far as Ngannou realistically pulling off what would be possibly the biggest upset in boxing history, Brown says it really just comes down to a puncher’s chance.
Because Ngannou possesses such immense power as a heavyweight, he does maintain the ability to catch Fury off guard and potentially score a stunning knockout. While that could happen, Brown knows the chances are still minuscule compared to Fury picking Ngannou apart before eventually dispatching the 36-year-old Cameroonian fighter.
“I guess he’s got a chance,” Brown said. “He’s such an athlete and he’s a gigantic person, such a strong guy, not just a hard hitter but it’s 12 rounds. That’s why these guys do amateur fights and low level pro fights. That’s why boxers don’t fight nobody for 10, 15, 20 fights and they’re fighting mediocre boxers. They’re learning about themselves. They’re learning how to compete in a boxing match, how to set things up for later rounds or how to work the body better, or whatever it may be for each different person.
“The one chance that we do grant him is that he’s going to land that big punch. That big punch has to be the one now. He’s got to have almost a superhuman amount of power. Deontay Wilder wasn’t able to do it. He’s got to have a superhuman amount of power to finish Tyson Fury with that one punch. So first, he’s got to find a way to land it, then he’s got to land it. It’s way too much to overcome.”
Ultimately, Brown can’t state with absolute certainty that Ngannou will lose, because there’s always some level of unpredictability in any combat sport, but he also knows it’s just unreasonable to believe he has anything more than a hope and a prayer of beating Fury.
“Maybe he goes in there and proves us all wrong, but the likelihood of that is so slim,” Brown said.
“If we’re going to buy a pay-per-view based off this dude either lands this one big punch on one of the greatest heavyweights ever or he’s going to get demolished, that doesn’t interest me to watch it. There’s a lot of guys that can do that.”