With Fury and Usyk in their heavyweight boxing big four in May and a rematch contract in place, another established champion, Joshua, is now in a long waiting period. Chinese giant Zhang Zhilei has always wanted to fight Joshua because Joshua is one of the most commercially valuable boxing champions in the world, but Joshua always ignores him. What's even more ridiculous is that Joshua would rather have a rematch with Nganno MMA rules than mention Zhang's name.
Joshua posted a video of himself practicing his kicks, which seemed to confirm rumors that Naganno would be in an MMA match with a boxing great. A former UFC legend, Nganno switched boxing and nearly knocked out Fury, who was controversially awarded by the referee, but was then brutally knocked out by Joshua. Nganno had hoped for a mixed martial arts fight with Wilder with a tempting appearance fee, but talks fell apart, and now his MMA rematch with Joshua should be a strange thing, and there will certainly be plenty of people willing to buy the PPV.
From the leg video released by Joshua, there is a look at the board, and it still has a certain lethality. Although he has never practiced jiu-jitsu, his boxing skills completely crush Nagano, and as long as he does a good job of preventing falls, he may not really lose to Naganno. Of course, from a professional point of view, Joshua needs to practice ground skills for at least half a year to actually play MMA, and how could he be willing to spend so much time practicing this?
There are reports that Joshua will play the winner between Helgovic and Dubois, but that will also have to wait, and the opponent's commercial value is mediocre. So Joshua is particularly embarrassed right now, with a rematch with Nganno in MMA, which is completely new and uncharted territory for him. In the face of the Chinese giant Zhang Zhilei, it is obviously not cost-effective, Zhang Zhilei's heavy punches can knock out any opponent, but Lao Zhang's influence is far less than strength.
Zhang Zhilei and Parker's conservative and negative style of play hurt their value, and the Saudi bigwig and ordinary fans were not satisfied, thinking that the match made people lethargic. Originally, Zhang Zhilei was not a boxer like Mike Tyson who could sell the box office, and now the box office may be even more bleak. In addition to being afraid of Zhang Zhilei's heavy punches, Joshua's failure to beat Lao Zhang may also be related to Lao Zhang's ugly and unsightly style of play.