Anthony Joshua Crushes Francis Ngannou, Adrien Broner Gets Heated with Bill Haney!

Dreams were crushed. Entire realities collapsed. The heavyweight journey of Francis Ngannou has ended for the time being, at least. Anthony Joshua and Francis Ngannou met in a clash many people had anticipated for months. The saga all begins with Francis himself, who made the ultimate sacrifice for all combat sports athletes and publicly stood against the UFC and Dana White.

His courage did not see much fruit initially, however. Ngannou held out on the biggest title fight available against Jon Jones until the UFC got the number right for his pay. When the contract negotiation period ended, Francis left the UFC and became a free agent. While in free agency, Ngannou teased signing to multiple organizations. He showed up a few times wearing ONE FC shirts and, on other occasions PFL shirts.

The tension was high, and the UFC was put in a difficult financial predicament for the first time in a while. The champion of their premier division walked out on them and there was a massive void where the belt once lay. Dana White and the matchmakers arranged a new title fight quickly, but the people of the world were focused on what Francis Ngannou's next move was.

Much of this was hate, many people wanted Francis to fail. The MMA community believed that his decision to leave the UFC was poor because of how stable his fighting career would be. With the UFC, there would be no shortage of fights. The issue was that the 3-fight contracts that the UFC offered weren't paying enough. When Ngannou eventually inked a deal with the PFL, it was confirmed to be worth $10 million. With his recent transition to boxing, Ngannou is set to make $20 million with endorsements included. It's safe to say that all the people who believed Ngannou's decision to leave the UFC was poor have been silenced.

Ngannou's transition was complete when he traded blows with Tyson Fury. As reported on the DQ w/ Damani Podcast, this fight was an absolute robbery. Fury was knocked silly by Ngannou several times. Throughout the fight, it was clear that Fury didn't plan on taking Ngannou seriously. In the early stages, Fury's head movement was sloppy and he mainly fought behind a lazy jab that he knew he could rely on because of Ngannou’s inexperience with linear boxing striking.

Eventually, Ngannou caught on and the fight became a game of keep away, with Fury trying to stand his ground while simultaneously avoiding the power shots from Ngannou. It came to no avail. Ngannou was able to crush Fury, sending him tumbling to the canvas. At the end of the night, Fury (34-0-1), who was a heavy betting favorite around 14-1 when the fight started for his fight with boxing debutant Ngannou (0-1), took home a win on the scorecards by unanimous decision.

Fury won with two scorecards reading 96-93, and one card reading 95-94. The dissenting universal scorecard for Ngannou was 95-94, but unfortunately, this system has yet to see any real implementation outside of proof that the public knows who really won. This fight was supposed to be nothing more than a competitive break for Tyson Fury. Unfortunately, it was later used a protection plan for Tyson Fury's record.

The promoters couldn't sully his record with a loss from Francis Ngannou of all people. Ngannou's performance against Fury was a major talking point in the setup for his matchup against Joshua. Although the two men are wildly different in style and stature, comparisons were made because of their world-class talent.

Things could not have gone any worse for Ngannou when he stepped into the ring against Joshua. He and his coaches abandoned the original approach they had against Fury. Instead of fighting long, Ngannou chose to use a left hook to attempt to open Joshua up.

He continued with this approach, but a switch to southpaw opened him up for a vicious knockdown via a hard right from Joshua. Ngannou sat straight down on his rear, with a shocked face that became a meme within minutes of the moment occurring. Ngannou got up to his feet and continued the fight, but it was clear that the fight was moving in Joshua's favor.

Joshua got his second knockdown after a few minutes, then knocked the Cameroonian underdog out cold with a little over 30 seconds remaining. Ngannou folded over to the side on his knee, going straight to sleep. Ngannou needed a few minutes before he could regain consciousness. Ringside physicians went straight to work, ensuring that Ngannou received oxygen as he awaited the official announcement on his stool.

When it was all said and done, Joshua congratulated Ngannou for making it that far against world-class competition. He pleaded for Ngannou to stay as well, with a heartfelt “Don't leave boxing!”, shouted to his corner. Joshua thanked the crowd for coming out and took pictures with Ngannou. Anthony Joshua leaves Saudi Arabia as the first man to ever knock Francis Ngannou out. Being the first and only man to finish Ngannou is a massive feat, but Joshua wears the accomplishment as a minor badge compared to others. With Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk's Undisputed World Heavyweight Championship fight looming over his head, he is waiting for the ultimate stage to open.

[Adrien Broner and Bill Haney Have War of Words!]

Adrien Broner and Bill Haney have gone at it on social media officially. The eyes of the sports public have been locked in on the Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney situation. Their long-awaited clash is meant to happen on April 20th of this year, but Garcia has been exhibiting strange behavior. In the first week of the fight's announcement, Ryan Garcia took to social media with a video to say “All of my accounts and cards have been taken,” along with other things that had been revoked or removed from him.

The confusion was not limited to just team Haney, everyone around the world was confused as to what Garcia was talking about. Eventually, the predicament progressed to a point where Garcia was on Twitter making religious revelations public. He went on Twitter Spaces several times to discuss the latest happenings, evidence of aliens, cult activity, and strange occurrences all in the life of “King” Ryan Garcia.

The public is now calling into question the validity of this fight. Several important individuals in boxing spaces around the world believe that Garcia may need a break. The knockout loss he suffered to Gervonta “Tank” Davis may still have its effects on him, as it has for Rolly. Now, this has all set the stage for one Adrien Broner. “The Problem” has entered the later phases of his career, finding himself in positions on cards in Florida making good money for himself.

The ideal situation for Broner is to work back into a world title fight, which may happen if it is found that Garcia is not fit to compete. Recent training footage has shown that Garcia looks sloppy, although this could be a ploy to spice up the fight. Either way, Broner capitalized on this by commenting harshly on the recent development that Undisputed Super-Featherweight World Champion Alycia Baumgardner would be training with Bill Haney.

Sharing training sessions with former Undisputed Lightweight World Champion Devin Haney left a sour taste in Broner's mouth because his remarks were malicious. This was the catalyst for the explosive confrontation on Instagram Live between the two men. To an audience of over 9,000 people, Adrien Broner and Bill Haney traded expletives.

They addressed the long sought-after sparring footage of Devin Haney and “Tank” Davis, in which Broner had to jump in to save Haney. The sparring footage was leaked this week by Ryan Garcia. The general consensus is that Floyd Mayweather shared this footage with Ryan Garcia while they met one another in the famous casino encounter where they were seen shaking hands in photos.

The massive sparring leak was a horrible look for Devin Haney because it confirmed everything that Broner said in multiple interviews on the subject. Haney was getting hurt badly by "Tank" during their sparring session, and when it got to be too much, Broner jumped in.

However, a key difference between Broner's story and the footage is that the "Doghouse" sparring session was not stopped after he jumped in the ring. Regardless of this small inconsistency, Broner's discussion of the sparring situation was a problem. This further frustrated Haney, creating the situation where Broner aggressively extended the offer to step in and fight Haney. If Garcia cannot make it to the scale, Broner wants to take over and settle their differences in the ring.

This does sound like a promising matchup, but several roadblocks to this happening need to be discussed. Firstly, the event budget. There is always a set amount of money a boxing or MMA promotion sets aside for an event, most of this produced by investors and the network involved with broadcasting the fight card. If all of this money was dedicated towards Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney, there is little chance that these people would take the risk by dedicating it to Adrien Broner.

They may consider Broner too big of a financial risk and pass it to another promotion. Or, Oscar De La Hoya can make a deal with Don King Promotions to bring the fight together. This would shock the boxing public, but the chances of this happening are slim.

One can only hope that Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney can make it all the way to Brooklyn on April 20th. There is much on the line for this fight. Aside from the WBC Super-Lightweight World Championship, dominance over the division between the Four Kings is once again at stake. Teofimo Lopez, “Tank” Davis, Ryan Garcia, and Devin Haney have all been linked together since their amateur days.

Now all in their primes, these next few matches between each of them will determine who reigns supreme. Since signing with Don King Promotions, Broner has only been in the ring once. This signing was big news because Broner had been out of the ring for a considerable amount of time after his Showtime-PBC contract expired. When Broner was let go by the former boxing powerhouse, many questioned whether or not he would return.

In shocking fashion, Broner came back with a massive stack of money on a table, agreeably teeth and palms with Don King. Broner got back in the gym and prepared for his next test. Broner's last appearance was against Bill Hutchinson, who entered their fight at 20-2.

Broner chose a well-versed opponent because Hutchinson only has 9 knockouts to his name. With many rounds spent in the ring, it was expected for Hutchinson's skill to be indicative of someone who'd logged plenty of ring time. Unfortunately for Hutchinson and his team, Broner was able to outclass him with the same footwork and shot selection that made him a multi-division world champion.

Round by round, Broner stacked up points with impressive hand speed. His activity was nothing to scream to the hills about, but it was enough to make a case for title contention. After this victory, Broner had two different fights scheduled. Both of these contests fell through after his opponents were injured, which has left Broner on the sidelines waiting for an opponent. He's ranked at #36 worldwide currently, so it isn't impossible for Broner to lay claim to an IBO title shot at welterweight, or try his luck at a rough weight cut to a catchweight, or further down to 140.