After yesterday’s weigh-ins, I spoke to former MMA and kickboxing champion Alistair Overeem for the retired Dutchman’s thoughts on a few topics: from predicting how his former foe would fare against Anthony Joshua to gauging interest in the Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic matchup and more besides. Read below for that conversation, as well as final tidbits before fight night.
Overeem: Ngannou has physical edge over Joshua
Knockout Chaos: Anthony Joshua vs. Francis Ngannou
10-round heavyweight main event tonight, ringwalks after 11pm BST
Winner slated to face Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk for undisputed world titles
RIYADH — Already into his early 40s, longtime heavyweight contender Alistair Overeem could be bitter about how the final years of his career will be remembered.
Instead, he takes it all in his stride and looks with renewed optimism for the future, both in combat sports and other business-related ventures outside the squared circle which became his home in the 1990s. He had his first professional kickboxing fight nine months after this writer was born, and the bug blossomed from there.
He told mmajunkie’s Mike Bohn he was very proud of Francis Ngannou and in awe of the Cameroonian’s journey, and it’s difficult not to be. Even if, some seven years ago now, Francis earned Knockout of the Year honours in a career-altering fight at your expense, in a #1 contender fight for then-champion Stipe Miocic’s world title.
It wasn’t clear at the time but served to stand Ngannou in good stead, as he fell well short of expectations against Miocic six weeks later and went back to the drawing board with much-needed developments while notably changing his team too.
Three years later, he looked vastly different en route to a second-round stoppage win over the two-time titleholder to claim UFC gold.
Missed anything? My boxing coverage from Riyadh
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Finally active and in a groove, Anthony Joshua cannot leave with regret
Anyway…
Mosope: Everyone says Fury underestimated Ngannou last time out, but Joshua is a more straightforward opponent – less movement and boxing nuance for Francis to deal with. Your thoughts on that?
Alistair: Yeah you’re right, it’s better suited for Francis because he now has the weight advantage – still slight – Fury uses his weight well, Joshua doesn’t do it as much so that’ll play more to Ngannou’s advantage.
MO: Francis has earned bigger opportunities than anyone thought possible a few years ago, and an undisputed title fight lingers should he win here. While the existing PFL deal means he’ll go back to MMA, what would you do if you were in his position?
AO: I would weigh up all the options with my team, he has an excellent one, he knows exactly what he’s doing… just weigh up the decisions every time. If he’s got the right preparation time and opponent, anything is possible right?
MO: Would you say the PFL opponents available to him right now — Renan Ferreira and Vadim Nemkov among them — are better or worse than the UFC’s top five?
AO: Uhh, I don’t even know who’s in the PFL honestly. [tells him about Ferreira-Bader result], wasn’t Ryan Bader a light-heavyweight? Yeah, you see.. somehow since my UFC release I don’t really follow anything any more. I’ll follow the top names like Jon Jones, I was looking forward to him fighting Ngannou but other than that, no idea.
PFL are a new player making moves, it’s exciting and good for the sport but I couldn’t tell you whose promotion has the better opposition for him, sorry.
MO: Fair enough. Two more from me, Jones-Miocic… should we still see this fight or is it three years too late? Jones is currently injured and not getting any younger, Miocic has been out a while and looks past his best.
AO: I’m backing Jon there, he’s got more experience and the surprise factor. Stipe’s durable, a very tough opponent but Jon – together with Greg Jackson and his other coaches – they will create a surprise to take the win. These are the exciting fights.
MO: Okay so tell me your Joshua-Ngannou prediction, how does it go?
AO: I’m leaning towards Ngannou KO, idk which round, or a Joshua UD. If I have to pick like you insist then I’ll go with Francis, he can create that surprise… being underestimated again, he came very close last time and will have got better.
Final tidbits, comments from Thursday’s weigh-in
Time to get to work
After a tense, longer-than-usual faceoff, Nick Ball didn’t waste his words when speaking to DAZN’s Ariel Helwani after weighing in.
On the physical discrepancies between the pair and how he’s feeling, the night before his biggest fight yet: “I’m used to fighting people taller than me, done it my whole life and it’s nothing new. I make it work to my advantage, I punch up and they punch down… I’m laser-focused and ready to get the job done.”
Storyline to watch: Matchroom head honcho Eddie Hearn wants Raymond Ford vs. Ball in a featherweight unification next, Queensberry chief Frank Warren meanwhile has said this week a Josh Warrington matchup interests him, should the 27-year-old succeed in his maiden world title opportunity overnight.
Contrastingly, Rey Vargas seemed unsettled and had to be calmed down on stage for a few moments before gathering himself to speak through Spanish translation.
On bouncing back from defeat last time out: “I learned a lot of things from my loss, the most important was it got to me… how I need to be myself. I’m big and no-one is able to take challenges that way.
I took the risk [against O’Shaquie Foster], learned I need to take on more challenges. Every fighter wants a shot at the champ, to box for a world title… I’ll keep my distance and that’s how I win.”
Joseph Parker spoke of being well-prepared, thanks to another successful training camp with nutritionist George Lockhart and head coach Andy Lee.
“He’s big and strong but also a big target, I’ve done great rounds of sparring so will show what I have worked on,” the Kiwi said to a loud section of supporters cheering his name. Four straight wins, will this prove itself a fantastic fifth?
Zhilei Zhang’s English may not be fluent enough to appreciate certain nuances, but the 40-year-old Chinese sure knows how to embrace his target audience.
The WBO interim world champion walked onto stage with a carefully-curated remix of Funky Dee’s Are You Gonna Bang Doe song with Joe Joyce, Parker and himself all mentioned to the crowd’s amusement, before being sharp and sweet on the mic: “Hard work’s finished. I’ll see you tomorrow, a win puts me right on the top.”
Ngannou, as he said earlier in the week, is left wishing this was a MMA rules matchup rather than one with strict boxing regulations. “I’d smoke this guy if it was,” he proclaimed, much to the delight of his support team and loud supporters – Joshua was typically all about business when addressing the crowd afterwards.
“What do the crowd want? I’m the postman, I deliver.” We’ll soon see.
Knockout Chaos full card, is as follows
Main card
Headliner: Anthony Joshua (252.4lbs) vs. Francis Ngannou (272.6lbs), 10 rounds
Co-main: Zhilei Zhang (c, 291.6) vs. Joseph Parker (247.6) for WBO interim world heavyweight title
Rey Vargas (c, 125lbs) vs. Nick Ball (126lbs) for WBC world featherweight title
Israil Madrimov (153.6lbs) vs. Magomed Kurbanov (153.6lbs) for vacant WBA world light-middleweight title
Lightweight: Mark Chamberlain (134.6lbs) vs. Gavin Gwynne (134.6lbs)
Undercard
10 rounds
Heavyweight: Justis Huni (243.2lbs) vs. Kevin Lerena (232.4lbs)
WBC Silver light-middleweight title eliminator: Jack McGann (153.4lbs) vs. Louis Greene (153.2lbs)
Heavyweight, 8 rounds: Andrii Novytskyi (239.4lbs) vs. Juan Torres (255.6lbs)
Light-welterweight, 6 rounds: Ziyad Almaayouf (144.4lbs) vs. Christian Lopez Flores (142lbs)
Heavyweight, 4 rounds: Roman Fury (224lbs) vs. Martin Svarc (225.6lbs)
Picture source: Getty Images unless stated otherwise
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