The London press conference for the March 8 event, set to be headlined by Anthony Joshua and Francis Ngannou, not only confirmed the two as main eventers for a stacked boxing card, but also revealed the rest of the fights on the undercard; including Zhilei Zhang versus Joseph Parker. Turki Al-Sheikh, head of the General Entertainment Authority―which is a government branch responsible for some of the biggest fights in boxing, went on to state his intention to continue to making all the necessary big fights that the boxing world has been craving for since the inception of the sport.
The theme of the fight card on March 8 will center around the “Street Fighter” video game franchise which has maintained popularity across the world for roughly three decades. As was revealed at the press conference on January 15th, Anthony Joshua (27-3, 24 KO’s) and Francis Ngannou (0-1,, 0 KO’s) will main event; similar to when Tyson Fury (34-0-1, 24 KO’s) faced Ngannou on October 28th,
The co-main event will feature Zhilei Zhang (26-1-1, 21 KO’s) defending his WBO interim heavyweight title against Joseph Parker (34-3, 23 KO’s) in a match that may trump even the main event given the pedigree of both heavyweights in the sport currently. Following Zhang’s back-to-back victories over Joe Joyce and Parker’s victory over Deontay Wilder (43-3-1, 42 KO’s), there will be plenty of interest to see these two high-ranked heavyweights compete in the ring.
WBC featherweight champion Rey Vargas (36-1 ,22 KO’s) will also feature on the undercard and defend his title against undefeated British contender Nick Ball (19-0, 11 KO’s). Vargas will be heading straight into the match following his loss to O’Shaquie Foster (21-2, 12 KO’s) in February of last year when the vacant WBC super featherweight title was on the line.
Lightweights Gavin Gwynne and Mark Chamberlain, relatively unknown compared to top-rated lightweight contenders such as Vasyl Lomachenko (17-3, 11 KO’s) and William Zepeda (29-0, 25 KO’s), will also fill a part of the undercard.
Australian heavyweight prospect Justis Huni (8-0, 4 KO’s) is set to make an appearance on the card against an opponent that will be named in the near future.
British prospect Roman Fury (3-0, 1 KO’s), younger sibling of Tyson Fury, will also be fighting on March 8 as a cruiserweight along with several other fighters not known widespread throughout the boxing world.
The Kingdom Arena, the same venue chosen for the ‘Day of Reckoning’ event, will host these fights in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. Chairman of the GEA―who have been the main benefactor in funding the last couple of mainstream fights in Saudi Arabia, Turki Al-Sheikh, has stated his intention to continue creating the biggest fights possible and hinted at the winner of Joshua-Ngannou facing the winner of the February 17 bout between Tyson Fury and Olesandr Usyk (21-0, 14 KO’s).
“We in Saudi Arabia take extreme care to present very important fights to the market,” Al-Sheikh said.
“The fans also would like to receive and have access to important matches at very good prices, and this is why you are watching and seeing these type of [quality] matches being promoted.
“You will see the result of this match [Joshua vs. Ngannou] connect to the result of the February 17 match [Usyk vs. Fury]. This is our idea.“
Turki Al-Sheikh’s statements clearly indicate his and the GEA’s interest to continue to evolve the sport of boxing and seems especially keen to focus on the heavyweight division, thus his desire to see the winner of Joshua-Ngannou face the undisputed champion between Usyk and Fury after the two champions fight on February 17.
