Boxing legend Lennox Lewis has questioned whether Anthony Joshua will deserve a shot at the undisputed crown if he beats Francis Ngannou.
Joshua will take on the former UFC heavyweight champion in Saudi Arabia in March, less than three months after stopping Otto Wallin in the Middle East. A month earlier, Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk will have clashed to crown the division’s first undisputed champion since Lewis in 1999.
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The two winners could then meet, potentially handing Joshua an unexpected shot at becoming the best heavyweight on the planet. But Lewis doubts whether the Brit will have earned the opportunity.
“OK, Eddie Hearn, I know this is the promoter in you speaking, so I’ll break it down like the boxing fan I am,” he wrote on social media. “If AJ beats Ngannou, which he should, does that elevate him to a shot at undisputed? Beating Wallin and Ngannou? There’s a much better case for the winner of Joseph Parker vs Zhilei Zhang.
“And if AJ gets through Ngannou, and Usyk wins undisputed, is the appetite for Usyk vs Joshua 3 out there? If Fury becomes undisputed, the man says he’s vacating all belts but the WBC and Ring so Fury in effect becomes last undisputed until someone else can Thanos them back together. I still want to see AJ fight Fury and Wilder… those are big fights. But like I told Mike Tyson, if you keep fighting guys like Lou Savarese, you will NEVER be ready for me.”
Joshua, meanwhile, expects an “explosive” encounter when he takes on Ngannou. Ex-UFC fighter Ngannou, who is now contracted to the Professional Fighters League, made his professional boxing debut against Fury in October and only narrowly missed out on an unlikely victory, dropping the WBC heavyweight champion in the third round.