[Boxing@Stream's]>>Jack McGann vs. Alcibiade Duran Galvan FREE Live@Reddit
There’s one seriously over-the-top Sportstainment™ event taking place this Saturday night when the lineal and WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury meets the former UFC heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou, in a feature attraction to kick off Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Season of art, music, theatre, food, and sporting events.
There’s been a lot of purist gnashing about this main event crossover dust-up, and that’s fair enough, but you’re better off cooling your boots and seeing it as a bit of fun between two big old lumps who have probably earned the right to shower in dollars for the night after decades of sacrifice. Tyson Fury will win, obviously, and that matters little. There is, of course, the Rizla paper chance that Ngannou hangs his record-breaking swiftly on Tyson’s whiskers and shakes things up, but it’s as unlikely as a handy dude in the boozer, full of Stella Artois troubling the big man by windmilling punches out in
the car park. So, much as this over-the-top Main Event hoo-hah is going to be irrelevant fun a la Muhammed Ali’s War of the Worlds with Antonio Inoki, the undercard is seriously intriguing and probably worth the entrance fee alone, so let’s take a look. Read: Keyshawn Davis Suspended For Three Months And Latest Win Changed To No Contest Jack McGann v Alcibiade Duran Galvan The show opens with Liverpool’s Jack McGann taking on the son of the legendary Roberto Duran, who
will be amongst the great and the good watching on at ringside. Alcibiade obviously had to fight, but over five years as a pro has amassed a moderate 12 and 3 tally against a handful of no-bodies, really, although does seem to have a bit of punching pop. McGann is unbeaten in 9, and you’d expect him to round that up to 10 by unanimous and add a tale for the future grandkids to his resume. Martin Bakole v Carlos Takam
You know what you get with Carlos Takam. A tough as f@ck top-tier gatekeeper who hits, gets hit, and keeps on hitting through that clenched gumshield until he wins or gets laid out. Martin Bakole is on the up. Always touted, his freight train was derailed in a KO loss to Michael Hunter back in 2018, but he has since regrouped and gone unbeaten in 8 with Tony Yoka, the premier scalp last year in Paris. You’d expect Bakole to grind the veteran down and stop him in the middle rounds. Read: The Final Few Days Of 2023 Could Be Great For Boxing: Fury - Usyk, Inoue - Tapales, Ioka - Estrada Moses It
auma v Istvan Bernath There is a lot of buzz around Moses Itauma in the UK and increasingly beyond, with many touting the 18-year-old as one of the future stars of the heavyweight division. This is amidst a narrative of his taking Mike Tyson’s record of becoming the youngest-ever heavyweight champion. Maybe he will, maybe he won’t – we will see, but for now, if opponent Istvan makes it past the first couple of rounds on Saturday night, that will be a surprise. Arslanbek Makhmudov v Junior Anthony Wright Arslanbek Makhmudov looks like one bad mofo and, with 17 wins in 17, fights like one, too, with only the previously mentioned Carlos Takam lasting the distance with the Russian powerhouse and genuine rising star. Wright has decent pedigree, having won the Chicago Golden Gloves three times as an amateur and started well as a cruiserweight pro before losing a couple and then filling out to heavyweight, where he has competed a bit. Makhmudov
will prove too big and too good in this one and likely stop Wright in the first half. Joseph Parker v Simon Kean We all know Joseph Parker. A good, solid former heavyweight champion who has been in with a who’s who and either beaten or tested all of them, win, lose, or draw. Recent outings suggest that he may have peaked, and it’s hard
to see where he sits in the heavyweight landscape now other than that of an active fighter earning a living. And with that in mind, you’d expect him to know too much for Canada’s Simon Kean, who, although a knockout king on paper with 22 in 23 wins, hasn’t mixed in company anywhere near Mr Parker. Should be damn good fun this one, though, and if Joseph has some left, he should take it. Read: Thomas Hearns, The Man Who Gave Us THE Greatest Round In Boxing History, Hits 65! Fabio Wardley v David Adeleye This is a cracker. Two young u
nbeaten British heavyweights with needle-moving knockout numbers meeting in their primes for the British heavyweight title. Hot sauce doused the red carpet event to launch this whole shebang of a night when there was a little dust-up between Wardley and Team Adeleye, leaving the former down and leaking a bit of claret. This is a proper 50/50 – Adeleye exudes a street confidence, and Wardley a laid-back knowing. It’s a call ‘em, and I call Wardle
Fury has been quick to dismiss suggestions that he can take this fight lightly due to his opponent's lack of experience in the boxing ring, claiming there's "more riding on this than there ever has been before."
In a press conference last month, he said: "I only trained six weeks for Deontay Wilder - I'm training 12 weeks for Francis. I need to be on my A-game, because there's more on the line now than a boxing fight. "If I lose to a number one contender or another champion, then people would say, 'oh, he lost to another champion.' "But if I lost to an MMA guy, I'm never going to be able to show my face in public again. There's going to be ridicule and people are going to chuck it in my face forever. "There's more riding on this than there ever has been before.
"Whether the media wants to take it as a joke or not, make no mistake, Tyson Fury will leave no stone unturned and I will come in at my fittest and strongest I've ever been to beat this man.
"If I'm not, and I get knocked out, I want you all to laugh at me. That's what I want, because I would've deserved it.
"The man's a machine and I'll give 100% respect."
"I'm very excited and happy," Ngannou said. "I had a dream as a kid to become a boxer, and now I'm going to box a guy at the peak of the mountain.
"For me, usually I would not pay attention to what's going on around me, but this is so big that I can't stop thinking about it.
"History is about to be made in Riyadh on October 28. It's something that I didn't see coming, although my dream was that someday it would happen.
"It's not just going to be a fight, we're opening up Riyadh Season, so it's a cultural event that we're fighting in.
"Nobody knows exactly what's going to happen, but what I do know for sure is that I'm going to be out there hunting for this guy's head to take it off, I guarantee you that."
'I'd like to fight Ngannou in the cage'
Fury has also backed himself to beat Ngannou at his own game, in a future MMA fight.
"I'd like to fight Ngannou in the cage; I think I'd beat him for sure," he said.
"He's not a good jiu-jitsu man, he's not a good wrestler. He's known for striking and I'm a better striker than him. I'd knock him out in seconds. He's more of a stand-up striker."