Top UFC light heavyweight feels Francis Ngannou's performance against Tyson Fury is worse for boxing than "influencer boxing has ever been"

Anthony Smith thinks Francis Ngannou’s valorous effort against Tyson Fury in their crossover fight should worry the boxing community.

Ngannou made his boxing debut against WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury on October 28. In spite of the gap in terms of experience and skill development, ‘The Gypsy King’ had to be content with a controversial split decision win.

The emergence of influencer boxing over the last few years has been deemed as a major threat to the credibility of boxing. However, UFC light heavyweight contender Anthony Smith thinks that Ngannou’s competitive showing against the heavyweight world champion is an even bigger red flag for the sport.

While speaking on the recent episode of Michael Bisping’s Believe You Me pofcast, Anthony Smith spoke candidly about the state of boxing. He said:

“I don’t think that Francis Ngannoue xposed the weakness that is the heavyweight division right now. I think that Francis just showed he’s right there with every single one of those guys. I think it says more about Francis than it does about boxing. But I think from the outside looking in, I think this was worse for legitimate boxing than influencer boxing has ever been.”

Smith offered the explanation for his statement and said:

“[Influencer boxing] was always supposed to be a dog and pony show a little bit.”

He added:

“[Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou] is one of our best versus one of the best [boxers]... And that’s not how it is supposed to look. Whether we do have boxing in our training, that’s not what Francis does [full time]. That’s not his game. The striking is different, the angles are different.”

Smith argued that boxing is a very small part of the overall mixed martial arts arsenal. As a result, he feels that Francis Ngannou almost pulling off an upset win over Tyson Fury with less than 18 months of pure boxing preparation is "a bad look for heavyweight boxing."

Watch Anthony Smith discuss the topic from the 30:38 mark of the video below:

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MMA legend appeals for combat sports community to respect Francis Ngannou and Tyson Fury for their efforts

While the combat sports community has been arguing over different aspects of the Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou fight, MMA legend Randy Couture has made an appeal to pause and admire the warrior spirit shown by the two men on October 28.

The retired former two-division UFC champion penned his thoughts in a lengthy post on X (formerly Twitter). Couture wrote:

"I believe we should all pause the egos and rhetoric, step back and just admire these Warriors and their amazing performances."

Read the entire post below: