Dismantling a Division

The December 23rd heavyweight card in Saudi Arabia, ostensibly a showdown between the best A- heavyweights, held some surprises for viewers. We all expected Anthony Joshua to come away victorious from his bout with Kubrat Pulev, as anyone with any sense predicted forDmitry Bivol and Lyndon Arthur (whose first name escaped me while writing this due to his notoriety). While I’ve been impressed with Joseph Parker’s development in recent years, I was one of many who were surprised that night when Wilder tried unsuccessfully to coast through his fight with the big New Zealand native, which was a must-win at Wilder’s age and (former) ranking.

On the undercard, Daniel Dubois comprehensively defeated former prospect Jarrell Miller. Miller was such a powerful, young fighter with so much room to grow, I expected him to rise to the occasion against Dubois, who was coming off a stolen decision loss to Usyk. Instead, Miller looked like an amateur with no reply to Dubois’ varied arsenal. In short, the future for Dubois is bright, if dangerous, in the position he’s put himself in terms of challenging one of the top heavyweights–Miller’s future is not. A few weeks after the loss, he went on to pummel a salesman at a car dealership, so that’s likely all boxing fans will hear from Mr. Miller in the title contention conversation.

I continue to be surprised that analysts, fans and, most of all, that Bivol, himself, thinks he’s going to be competitive against Beterbiev. That’s still being presented to the public as a potential showdown, I guess because Bivol won a points decision over Canelo. The biggest surprise, however, came after all the scores were turned in and the ring was dismantled. My prediction for the fallout was that Dubois and Joshua would sign a fight against each other, being the two best fighters still legitimately in line for a payday against Fury. Instead, Joshua has made the dangerous choice to face Francis Ngannou, the overlooked crossover MMA fighter who should have come away the winner from his fight against Tyson Fury. It’s going to be pretty impressive just seeing two physiques like that across from each other, but it’ll be even more interesting to see how Joshua’s polished but shallow skill set compares against Ngannou’s undeveloped but completely formidable abilities. Styles make fights, and if Joshua can fall back on his Olympic pedigree to land volume against a fighter who has to be careful with his output, he might just take a decision. If he’s not wary of his opponent’s power from single, simple shots, though, it’ll be a quick, decisive step to the top of the sport for Ngannou. And the end of the heavyweight division as we know it.