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Anthony Joshua will earn the WBC’s No 1 ranking if he beats Francis Ngannou, according to the organisation’s president.
However, Mauricio Sulaiman insists a potential fight with Tyson Fury will likely have to wait as he is already committed to a rematch with Oleksandr Usyk.
Former heavyweight champion Joshua will enter the ring with Ngannou on March 8 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
It will be his fourth fight in the space of 11 months after victories over Jermaine Franklin, Robert Helenius and Otto Wallin.
Anthony Joshua will likely have to wait to fight Tyson Fury
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Ngannou will be competing in just his second professional boxing fight after narrowly losing to Fury on debut last October.
Joshua held the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO belts until he lost to Usyk in September 2021.
He has got his career back on track following successive defeats against the Ukrainian.
And Sulaiman says his rise to being No 1 in the WBC will be complete if he is victorious in March.
He told gambling.com: “Anthony Joshua was first ranked by the WBC when he started as a professional and then he kept moving up and was ranked inside the top five and then number 2 ranked when he received the opportunity to fight for another title (the IBF).
“He has had a sensational career and if he beats Francis Ngannou, then he is number one in the WBC while Francis Ngannou is number 10 so the winner will certainly be positioned for great things in the immediate future.”
Joshua wants to fight the winner of Fury v Usyk if he overcomes Ngannou.
However, Sulaiman has thrown huge doubt over the potential of that fight happening anytime soon.
He says a rematch between Fury and Usyk is already in the pipeline and Joshua will have to rely on a late change if he wants to fight the winner next.
Sulaiman added: “We will see what happens as there are fights that need to happen before we elaborate on something else but both Fury vs Usyk and Joshua vs Ngannou are both very interesting fights.
“The WBC already sanctioned Fury v Usyk and the rematch. We received the request and have already accepted a rematch if the promoters put it together so that’s where the WBC stands.
“If the promoters change their request for the rematch, we will certainly address it.”
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Anthony Joshua will fight Francis Ngannou in Saudi Arabia on March 8
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Joshua is the big favourite to beat Ngannou, despite the former MMA star almost pulling off a huge upset against Fury.
However, promoter Frank Warren believes Joshua has weaknesses that Ngannou can exploit.
Warren told PA: “If I’m fighting AJ, what am I looking to do? I’d look to exploit his weaknesses and there’s a wealth of that which we’ve seen.
“We’ve seen his weaknesses in that first fight against Tubby the Tuba [Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019].
Anthony Joshua has won three fights since last April
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“Also the two fights against Oleksandr Usyk, we can see what they are.
“People have seen him wobble a few times in fights, that happens with him.
“I’m not saying there’s a confidence issue, but there wasn’t that where he was such an emphatic fighter. I think he’s changed.
“He’s changed his style a bit, which he should do. His new trainer [Ben Davison] has brought some momentum to him, but he’s going to have a fight on his hands.”
Freeview has finalised a minor shake-up to its TV Guide. Until now, Together TV was available on Channel 82 during the day before switching to Channel 790 between 5am and 8am. Clearly, this made finding the channel at certain times of day unnecessarily confusing. It could also cause havoc for those with a hard-drive built into their Freeview set-top box for recordings. Together TV +1 was found on Channel 285.The […]
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