Francis Ngannou says Anthony Joshua won’t be able to take the kind of shots that he hit Tyson Fury with last October without him folding up in their fight on March 8th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Ngannou, one of the biggest punchers in the heavyweight division, feels that Joshua (27-3, 24 KOs) can’t take the kind of shots Fury did and get back up the way he did.
Fury was getting hit with massive shots the entire fight, and he lost his cool in the championship rounds. In one instance, we saw Fury clobber Ngannou with a hard elbow to the head, and the former UFC champion didn’t even clinch.
That was impressive. It’s fair to say that if Fury nailed Deontay Wilder with the same elbow, he’d have hit the deck and wouldn’t have gotten back up.
Joshua’s Chin Under Scrutiny
Many would agree that the 34-year-old Joshua doesn’t have much of a chin and would have a lot of knockout losses on his record if his promoter, Eddie Hearn, didn’t keep him away from hard punchers during his 11-year professional career.
Andy Ruiz Jr knocked out Joshua in 2019, and Wladimir Klitschko should have done the same in 2017 if he didn’t inexplicably back off after dropping him in the sixth. That fight was the weirdest.
“Yeah, I have a doubt about that,” Ngannou said to DAZN, when asked if Joshua could handle the shots he hit Tyson Fury with last October. “Tyson showed that he’s very resilient. I saw him come back from knockdowns like you wouldn’t believe.
“So I think he’s probably one of the most resistant [sic] person out there, and that’s not a disrespect to AJ. I don’t believe that AJ would take what Tyson did.”
Comparisons to Fury
It’s pretty obvious that if Ngannou lands similar punches on Joshua’s chin that he did against Fury, it’ll be an easy night on March 8th. Joshua can’t take those kinds of punches without hitting the deck.
AJ might get up from the shots, but he’ll keep doing down repeatedly under the firepower of Ngannou until the referee is forced to stop the contest.
“[Not] As much as Tyson,’ said Ngannou when asked if Joshua has a good chin.
“Who hasn’t knocked Tyson down? So many people have knocked Tyson down,” said Joshua.
