The Anthony Joshua to MMA conversation continues
Today, the Telegraph reported that the UFC is ready to offer Anthony Joshua a $500 million dollar contract. Last week in an interview with Sky Sports when Sky Sports asked Joshua if he would ever consider crossing over to MMA it seemed as if he did more than think about it. He seemed to have a few fights in mind, almost as if he were doing more than just playing around with the idea. The MMA fighters in the conversation hinted at and mentioned were Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones.
The boxing to MMA chatter in the news is thanks to last summer’s Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. boxing match which Mayweather was naturally the victor. As the first quarter of 2018 is coming to close, the Mayweather/McGregor conversation has renewed with the famed boxer hinting at trying out MMA. Longtime fight fans of both sports know no one can come into either realm with only a few months of training and come out the victor, even with boxing as part of one’s day-to-day preparation for their preferred craft of combat.
The one truth about the crossover is that there is money to be made off of the “what if” factor that is present when two combat sports athletes move into a new territory and make fight fans come together and wonder, who will land that finishing blow. After all, fists are traded in both boxing and MMA and competitors as skilled as the ones that compete in both have a little more than a puncher’s chance at scoring a win. With the money made off the high profile “Money Fight” last summer, it would only make sense to see how combat sports profits when the rule-set adds the options fighter have in MMA.
