Dan Hardy believes Francis Ngannou stands a solid chance of beating Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua following his performance against Tyson Fury.
Ngannou shocked the world in his boxing debut against Fury in October, when he pushed the Brit to his absolute limit, knocking him down in the third round and going toe-to-toe with him for 10 frames.
Following his outrageous performance, there is growing talk of potential fights against Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder, with Ngannou being favored over the boxing phenoms.
In a recent appearance on ‘The MMA Hour,’ Dan Hardy praised the Cameroonian by saying that he stands a solid chance against the likes of Wilder and Joshua.
“Tyson Fury stylistically is probably the most difficult for Ngannou to deal with,” Hardy said. “He’s tall, he’s got great upper body movement, great defense. Then you look at somebody like Anthony Joshua or a Joe Joyce, they’re a little more upright, they don’t necessarily take a punch quite as well. They definitely don’t regroup as well as Tyson Fury does.
“I feel like he’s taken on the stiffest test and proved himself. So the door is definitely wide open for him in boxing and say you put somebody like a Deontay Wilder in there. You’ve got two of the most thunderous punchers on the planet. But again, stylistically for Ngannou, there are holes in Deontay Wilder’s game that can be exploited when he’s punching. Honestly, I think all the doors are open for him. We could be looking at someone that can hold the WBC and the PFL title at the same time.”
Despite Ngannou’s love for boxing, Hardy said that he’d love to see the former UFC heavyweight champion return to MMA.
“I would like to see him back in MMA,” Hardy said. “I would like to see him hopefully headline the PFL pay-per-view event that’s coming up in the new year, maybe the first half of next year get him an MMA fight and then see where he’s at in the rankings and see kind of where the heavyweight division is at and if anybody makes sense. I feel there are some really good fights for Ngannou.”
Do you agree with Dan Hardy?
