Michael Bisping has nothing but praise for both Anthony Joshua and Francis Ngannou for making a boxing match happen.
Ngannou and Joshua are set to box in Saudi Arabia in March in an intriguing matchup. Ngannou is coming off a split decision loss to Tyson Fury in his pro boxing debut, and now, he will be boxing Joshua, which has impressed Bisping on how the former UFC heavyweight champion has handled his free agency.
“He fought Tyson Fury, and now he’s fighting Anthony Joshua, I mean unbelievable. He’s going to be paid a tremendous amount of money and a lot of people will might say, I would do that for that amount of money. But, Geez Louise, that’s impressive,” Michael Bisping said on his Believe You Me Podcast.
Although Michael Bisping is impressed that Francis Ngannou was able to get these massive paydays in boxing, the former UFC middleweight champion says respect also has to go to Anthony Joshua. Bisping believes Joshua has no need for the fight, but is excited that the Brit took the chance on facing Ngannou.
“AJ does deserve a lot of respect here. He has no need to box Francis Ngannou, he doesn’t gain anything with a win, other than solidifying another victory and being 4-0 in his last four and probably will get the winner of Usyk vs. Tyson Fury, but I think he would have gotten that anyway. I think this is happening because Deontay Wilder was probably the guy in the mix, they thought he would beat Joseph Parker and he didn’t,” Bisping said.
Although Joshua didn’t need to take this fight, a win over Ngannou will likely secure him a title shot, as Bisping says.
Michael Bisping says Francis Ngannou answered a lot of questions
After the fight was announced, Francis Ngannou opened as a slight underdog, which shows the respect he has gotten from the boxing world.
Michael Bisping believes Francis Ngannou answered every question people had of him against Tyson Fury which only adds intrigue to his matchup against Anthony Joshua.
“I think for Francis Ngannou it is great. For him, there have been a lot of questions answered. Can he compete with these boxers, can even land a glove, can he take a shot from these guys, does he have the stamina to go 10, 12 rounds, does he have the ability to maintain the power in that period, as well. These were all questions, these were all unknowns, well the answer to all those questions were yes, we saw that when he fought Tyson Fury. Tyson Fury, even though he says he trained for that fight, physically he looked terrible. He looked awful, he looked sloppy, his technique was crap. He still beat Francis Ngannou,” Bisping concluded.
If Ngannou can catch Joshua it would be an upset and set the former UFC heavyweight champ for another big matchup next time out.
