Boxing

ANTHONY JOSHUA has been warned there is “every chance” he will get knocked out by Francis Ngannou. Joshua returns on March 8 in Saudi Arabia against ex-UFC champion Ngannou, who will make only his second appearance in the boxing ring.
Anthony Joshua facing off with Francis NgannouCredit: AFP
His debut came in October against Tyson Fury, the night he amazingly dropped the WBC champion but lost a controversial decision.
The performance was enough to gain the attention of Joshua, who saw his super-fight with Deontay Wilder axed after the American was beaten.
British boxing legend Ricky Hatton backs AJ as a big favourite but refused to rule Ngannou out such is the power he possesses.
Hatton told OLBG: “AJ is a very good boxer and is known for his explosiveness and his power.
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“But you don’t become an Olympic gold medallist and a two-time heavyweight champion of the world without the ability that Joshua has.
“But on the downside, he can be hurt, knocked down and stopped and when you think of the size and punching power Ngannou has got, there’s every chance he could knock AJ out, but the bigger picture is, Joshua is a very rounded, accomplished boxer.
“He’s very skilful and heavy-handed and it’s the right time for him because his confidence is sky high from the past couple of performances. 
“If he goes out and there impresses where Tyson didn’t, it’ll work more in his favour when they sit down on the negotiation table and try and make the Tyson Fury fight.”
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Joshua, 34, returned with victory over Otto Wallin, 32, in December in Saudi.
And on the same night, Wilder, 38, was stunned by Joseph Parker, 32, to see his blockbuster with AJ go up in smoke.
Francis Ngannou’s boxing coach hails MMA star as ‘the hardest puncher in the world’ in stark warning to Anthony Joshua
So with Fury, 35, and Oleksandr Usyk, 37, signed to an undisputed bout, Joshua and promoter Eddie Hearn were forced to look elsewhere.
And fighting Ngannou, 37, right after Fury gives AJ the chance to one-up old rival Fury with a more clinical performance.
Hatton said: “It’s a sensible fight for Anthony Joshua to make because of how well Francis Ngannou did against Tyson Fury.
“There’s a big question mark really. Was Francis Ngannou better than what we thought he was, or did Tyson take him too lightly?
“Either way, AJ was in good form against Otto Wallin showing good boxing ability, and his confidence will be back up no.
“The fact that Tyson struggled, if AJ goes in and puts on an impressive performance then that’s a massive thing in their favour.
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“I still think Tyson is the best heavyweight out there, he took Ngannou lightly, but I can see where Eddie Hearn is going with AJ in order to make the match because Tyson couldn’t of struggled anymore.
“If Joshua goes out there and impresses, it can only work in his favour.”
Ngannou dropped Tyson FuryCredit: GETTY More

TYSON FURY got back to reality by returning home to Morecambe for the school run – while showing off his horror eye injury. The Gypsy King was meant to be two weeks out from fighting in the heavyweight division’s first four-belt unification in Saudi Arabia
Tyson Fury got back to reality by returning home to Morecambe for the school run
Fury showed off his horror eye injury
But disaster struck when he suffered a freak injury in sparring that left him needing over ten stitches in his eye.
As a result, the historic undisputed title decider has been postponed until May 18 and Fury has momentarily closed up shop in Riyadh.
The father-of-seven was soon back home on daddy duty but already looking ahead to the rescheduled fight date.
Fury said: “Back to reality today. Back to the good old Morecambe Bay weather.
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“Rain, wind, cold. Back to the school runs. Back to real life stuff.
“Can’t wait to get back into training camp in Saudi and absolutely smash it.”
Fury was in the middle of a scheduled 12-round sparring session when Agron Smakici sliced him open with an accidental elbow.
Saudi’s boxing powerbroker Turki Alalshikh was quick to confirm a new date only three months down the line has been set.
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But the powerful politician revealed another pull-out would have a massive £10MILLION consequence to be paid out of either boxer’s own cash.
Usyk spoke out for the first time since the fight cancellation during a press conference in Valencia – where it was revealed he pushed for the penalty clause.
New footage appears to show moment Tyson Fury was cut by an ELBOW causing Oleksandr Usyk fight to be scrapped
His manage Egis Klimas said: “It was our request. We put that to the Saudi people, and they accepted it.
“If he pulls out, the money has to come from the fighter, not from Saudi.” More

TYSON FURY had the £10million forfeit clause forced upon him by Oleksandr Usyk’s concerned team after his second pull-out.The 35-year-old WBC heavyweight king pulled out of the February 17 undisputed decider with Ukraine’s WBA, IBF and WBO boss last Friday, after suffering a cut in sparring.
Oleksandr Usyk demanded a £10m forfeit clause inserted for his rescheduled Tyson Fury fightCredit: Getty
Tyson Fury’s cut that postponed the fightCredit: X @Queensbury
It was the second time in three months that the Gypsy King had pushed the iconic Saudi Arabia show back, after his dismal performance in the narrow October 23 win over boxing debutant Francis Ngannou got him another stay of execution.
And on Saturday night, when the rescheduled May 18 date was confirmed by new Riyadh boxing powerbroker Turki Alalshikh, the powerful Saudi politician revealed another pull-out would have massive financial consequences.
The details remained vague but on Tuesday at a Valencia press conference, after his wasted training camp was finally closed down, Usyk’s manager Egis Klimas explained the smallprint.
“It was our request,” Klimas, who had a shouting match with Fury over video call at the weekend, said. 
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“We put that to the Saudi people, and they accepted it.
“If he pulls out, the money has to come from the fighter, not from Saudi.”
Usyk, who missed the birth of baby daughter Maria to complete his training camp, refused to pour salt in Fury’s stitched wound.
But he did add fuel to the suggestion that the video team Fury leaked allegedly showing the Brit giant suffer the injury while wearing a headguard – while sparring partner Agron Smakici was wearing giant padded gloves – could have been staged.
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“I saw it but I didn’t think about it,” he said about the grainy clip.
“I have mentioned before that there are certain measures taken by highly professional fighters, 20oz gloves, headguard, vaseline on the faces and gloves to avoid cuts and injuries. 
New date for Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk CONFIRMED after Gypsy King was forced to pull out of megafight with horror cut
“Otherwise you are jeopardising the whole event and being disrespectful to the people involved.”
And in one final chilling message to Fury, before he spends some time with his young family before starting another camp, he warned him not to pull any more stunts.
“We have to be cautious and treat this professionally”, he said. “And spend every minute we spend in the ring with attention and respect.
“To judge someone for his mistakes is a weakness. Even if someone is trying to play me then he is playing to my rules.” More

CARL FROCH has launched a stinging attack on Tyson Fury after the Gypsy King suffered a horror cut that caused his fight with Oleksandr Usyk to be postponed. Fury was due to contest in the first four-belt heavyweight unification on February 17 in Saudi Arabia against Usyk.
Carl Froch launched a stinging attack on Tyson FuryCredit: Not known, clear with picture desk
Tyson Fury’s cut suffered in sparringCredit: QUEENSBERRY PROMOTIONS
But with just two weeks to go, disaster struck after he suffered a gruesome gash in sparring that required over ten stitches.
Initially, former super-middleweight world champion Froch – who has been embroiled in a feud with Fury’s dad John – blamed the Gypsy King.
He said on his YouTube channel: “I don’t think there’s any excuse for him to get cut. And you’re gonna say, ‘Oh well he got cut, it happens.’
“It never happened to me. Didn’t happen that often to a lot of top worlds champions, I could go through the list, Floyd Mayweather to Canelo Alvarez.
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“You can go down the list to all these tens and 20, 30 world title fights back to back to back with no pullouts from injuries.
“It never happened to me because I used to wear a face guard. I put a face guard on.
“You might see Tyson, he’s got these cheekbone protectors on his face guard.
“Close to a fight, two weeks before he could be putting a face guard protector on so you’ve got a bar on in front of your face.
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“No elbows or sharp edges of the gloves can get through so you mitigate getting injured.
“You don’t get any thumbs in the eye, you don’t get an elbow in the side of the eye. Stuff doesn’t get through
New footage appears to show moment Tyson Fury was cut by an ELBOW causing Oleksandr Usyk fight to be scrapped
“And that’s what you should be doing. In a fight of this magnitude you should be taking massive precautions.
“So I’m blaming his trainer, or himself or his team for not taking that precaution by wearing this face guard whether you’re uncomfortable in it or not.”
The fight has since been rescheduled to May 18 and both Fury and Usyk have agreed to forfeit £10MILLION of their own cash if they pull out.
Froch – a self-professed flat-Earther – later softened up on his stance after Fury showed off the extent of his gruesome gash.
He said: “We’ve seen the cut now, I did want to see it. I said, I love a conspiracy. But I wanted to see the stitches, I wanted to see the cut.
“Doesn’t look fresh to me, doesn’t look like an acute injury. The bruising is coming out, the swelling is coming down. The stitching is all scabbed up.
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“But regardless of what you think about all that, he’s got a cut and the fight is now rescheduled.” More

THE boxer who cut Tyson Fury in sparring and cancelled the “biggest fight” in boxing has spoken out to insist it was an accident. Fury was due to contest in the first ever four-belt heavyweight unification on February 17 in Saudi Arabia against Oleksandr Usyk.
Agron Smakici speaks out after accidentally cutting Tyson FuryCredit: YouTube @iFL TV
But with just two weeks to go, disaster struck after he suffered a gruesome gash in sparring that required over ten stitches.
As a result, the fight has been postponed to May 18 and before long images and footage of the doomed spar emerged.
It appeared to show Croatian heavyweight Agron Smakici land an elbow to the eye of Fury which caused the cut.
But Smakici has now spoken out to set the record straight from his point of view.
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He told iFL TV: “Unfortunately it looks like bad news because I cancelled the biggest fight. But it wasn’t on purpose.”
Smakici revealed the sparring session took place at midday in Saudi and was kicked off by Irishman Thomas Carty.
He then hopped in as a fresh body for Fury but after just three rounds the now infamous blow landed.
But Smakici is adamant it was a punch not an elbow.
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He said: “I’m telling you, it was a punch. I threw a punch, I know I feel the punch.
“But he was pulling my head forward and maybe it goes to the elbow. I didn’t do it on purpose.”
New footage appears to show moment Tyson Fury was cut by an ELBOW causing Oleksandr Usyk fight to be scrapped
Smakici was in camp with Fury for two weeks and only sparred four rounds with him as the training partners were being rotated.
And he did his best to mimic Usyk’s famous elusive southpaw style but he was met by Fury’s trademark showmanship.
Smakici, 33, revealed: “He did some tricks. He likes to speak like, ‘You little sausage, let’s go, come on.’
“He’s the type like that. We had some stuff like that in the sparring. Speaking like that.

“And in the third round, it happened – the cut. Before that it was interesting sparring, it very good sparring.”
Smakici holds a 20-2 boxing record and also made a successful MMA return last year to go 1-1 in the cage.
He has been used as a sparring partner for Anthony Joshua before and hopes to be welcomed back into Fury’s camp despite the freak injury.
Smakici said: “I would like to go back to the Fury camp to do the whole preparation with him.
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“The conditioning training, everything just to push him and motivate him. And I will put some on some elbow protection or whatever you need!
“They were really cool, they said, ‘Hey, it happens. You did great rounds, thank you very much.'”
Tyson Fury’s cut that postponed the fightCredit: X @Queensbury More