'It's not a gimmick," Anthony Joshua said as he considered the surreal challenge he faces in Riyadh tonight against Francis Ngannou, a former mixed martial artist who has lost his solitary bout as a professional boxer. "This is a serious fight with someone who is prepared and understands the dynamics of boxing after he put up a good fight against an apparently generational great," Joshua said.
"I look at it now as something completely different." Before Ngannou shocked Tyson Fury by dropping the WBC world heavyweight champion in the third round of his pro debut last October, words like "gimmick", "stunt" and "charade" had been used to describe that crossover contest.
Joshua settled on "gimmick" when he had first been approached with an offer to fight Ngannou, who was then the heavyweight champion of the UFC, the juggernaut organisation of mixed martial arts.
"They spoke about this fight before and I said: 'No, it's a gimmick," Joshua said of the 10-round boxing bout. "It's not something I thought was right, crossing over when I'm chasing heavyweight glory. But when they saw what happened with Ngannou against Fury, this opportunity presented itself again. I never turn down a challenge and we can now get rid of the word 'gimmick'.
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Denne historien er fra March 08, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian.
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