Francis Ngannou promised Monday to find out if Anthony Joshua’s chin is as unreliable as he has been led to believe.
Joshua glared at Ngannou as the former UFC heavyweight champion explained during a press conference in London how he’ll go about their 10-round boxing match March 8 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The hard-hitting Ngannou feels that if he hits Joshua with the type of left hook he landed on Tyson Fury in the third round of their fight October 28 that Joshua won’t be able to recover.
“I’m going to fight him, so what do you think I’m going to do?,” Ngannou said. “It’s to find and look for his chin. I mean, that’s what [happens] in a fight. … In a fight, you try to hit somebody in the chin or wherever you can hit him, right? And then yes, I heard that he doesn’t have a chin. I don’t know if it’s true or not. I hope I have a opportunity to test that out. That’s my wish. That’s what I’m wishing for.”
England’s Joshua (27-3, 24 KOs) was dropped four times in his first fight against Andy Ruiz Jr., who upset the former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO champ by seventh-round technical knockout in June 2019 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Wladimir Klitschko previously dropped Joshua in the sixth round of their bout, but Joshua recovered, recorded his second and third knockdowns of Joshua during the 11th round and knocked out Ukraine’s Klitschko, another former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO champ, in April 2017 at Wembley Stadium in London.
Cameroon’s Ngannou floored Fury in the third round of his only professional boxing match, but Fury came back, edged Ngannou on two scorecards and won their 10-rounder by split decision (96-93, 95-94, 94-95).
Ngannou’s admirable performance against Fury led Eddie Hearn, the 34-year-old Joshua’s promoter, to praise the dangerous novice. Ngannou nonetheless questioned Hearn’s sincerity Monday.
“I been sitting here, listening to people talking, and even Eddie praising me, which I appreciate that,” Ngannou said. “But at the same time, I’m not sure if he’s honest or if he just wanna get me [to] sleep on his guy, which that’s not going to happen. I’m just a beginner out here that’s gonna train really hard and do everything and come as the underdog to win the fight.
“So, I don’t take my last fight as a reference and think that I get this done, and think that I get everything. You know, I know exactly where I am at. I’m just a beginner. And I’m definitely gonna come out better and, yes, get better and better. So, that’s how I see things. I’m getting prepared for a tough, hard fight.”
The 37-year-old Ngannou assured his critics that he hasn’t grown overconfident after the Fury fight unfolded in much more competitive fashion than the 20-1 odds suggested. The 6-foot-4, 272-pound Ngannou did, however, mention the possibility of eventually facing the winner of the Fury-Oleksandr Usyk title unification fight February 17 in Riyadh after he knocks off Joshua.
“Yes, the Tyson Fury fight was great,” Ngannou said. “It was awesome, but that’s now in the past and I have a new challenge in front of me. I take it even more serious now than before because now I think there is something more on the line, which is probably the undisputed [fight against Fury or Usyk].
“So, let’s see – maybe I will do something that nobody have done before. And I really believe that I have the tools of doing that, starting off having a win against AJ on March 8th in Riyadh. [It’s] gonna be a epic fight, not a easy one, but a possible one [to win]. And I’m going to take that.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.