Former heavyweight boxing champ Anthony Joshua (left) shapes up to former UFC champion Francis Ngannou.
Eyes and ears will shortly be on Riyadh, Saudi Arabia tonight.
Unfortunately for most, if curious, you have to pay once more for the privilege if you plan to watch. The event is available on pay-per-view/box office on either DAZN or Sky Sports in the UK. For others, you can tune in, almost free, to BBC Radio 5 for live blow-by-blow analysis of the chief supports and main event. The choice is yours.
Hidden behind the hype of a contest between a mixed-martial arts fighter with a Queensberry code record of no wins from one contest and a former two-time heavyweight title holder, there is a legitimate winner-take-all fight between two top ranked heavyweight contenders.
China’s Zhilei Zhang (26-1-1, 21 KO’s) will face New Zealander Joseph Parker (34-3, 23 KO’s) in what should be a final eliminator for the undisputed title to be later contested in the same desert city on 19 May between undefeated champions Oleksandr Usyk from Ukraine and Briton Tyson Fury.
The form guide for the chief support to the Joshua-Ngannou clash is that both Zhang and Parker are contenders on the up.
True, Joshua (27-3, 24 KO’s) has beaten Parker, but the Kiwi is a much improved fighter since with an almost perfect win record. One of his only other losses being to Joe Joyce, a fighter that Zhang convincingly beat over two outings last year.
Heavyweight boxing is an unpredictable thing. One big punch can ruin reputations and turn the form book on its head. Boxing history is littered with them – Tyson-Douglas, Lewis-McCall to name but a few. We only have to look recently to Francis Ngannou temporarily flooring Tyson Fury and ‘earning’ his top ten world ranking with an immediate fight against Anthony Joshua tonight.
Zhang, a 40 year old southpaw and standing six foot six, is rated #3 by The Ring magazine. He has already beaten Parker over the amateur code on points 13 years ago and this bodes well for him.
Parker is coming off arguably his biggest victory, a unanimous points decision victory over former WBC champion Deontay Wilder last December. Now trained by former world champion Andy Lee he looked a much improved fighter after a long period of being a perennial loser in big fights. It was his most impressive outing since losing the WBO title to Joshua some years before.
This really should be the fight of the evening. We pick Zhang to win late by KO as his fast and heavy hands take their concussive effect. Parker will be competitive throughout and bank on the much older man running out of gas but the Chinese has enough amateur experience to get his game plan right on the night.
Similarly in the main event we see the elite competitive pedigree of Joshua, London Olympic’s super-heavyweight gold medallist, to be the telling factor in defeating the strong Cameroonian who will also have good moments, maybe flooring the Londoner if he gets sloppy, but having he nous and skills to prevail unanimously on points. Then it’s onto the heavyweight queue to meet the new undisputed champ in the winter.
However you choose to watch or listen, enjoy it.
The Undisputed 