Dillian Whyte believes complacency was the reason behind former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou’s second-round knockout loss to Anthony Joshua last Friday at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Whyte thinks that the success that Ngannou had fighting Tyson Fury gave him a sense of false confidence, and he paid the price for it by getting destroyed by Joshua.
The thirteen-year veteran Whyte notes that Ngannou thought he could stand directly of the more experienced former two-time heavyweight champion Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs) and not move his head or clinch.
Dilliam notes that even after Ngannou was dropped twice, he got back up and stood in the same place without making any adjustments.
False Confidence after the Fury Fight
“I think that fight [against Tyson Fury] gave him false confidence to the point where, when he was getting hammered with big punches, he stayed in the pocket, and he wasn’t trying to move his head or hold or anything,” Whyte said to Sky Sports News about Ngannou’s attitude.
“He went down, stood up in the same place. Didn’t move his head, went down, stood up in the same place and basically waited for the third right hand.”
It was obvious from the start that Joshua vs. Ngannou was just about money, and it was never intended to be a competitive fight. The Saudis wanted it, and they had to know that Ngannou had no chance.
Certainly, AJ’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, knew that it was a mismatch because he had said from day one that Joshua would destroy Ngannou based on his superior experience and talent.
At least Hearn was straight up about the fight, but sadly, the boxing public failed to listen to him because if they did, people would have steered clear and not purchased it on PPV.
If it bombed really badly, the Saudis would think twice about putting on circus-level crossover fights in the future and would focus on serious boxing between real boxers.
Whyte: “I Would Have Knocked Him Out”
“I tried to fight Ngannou four years ago,” Whyte said. “I would have definitely knocked him out. I said I would fight him in boxing and MMA. I always believed I could knock him out because the boxing ability isn’t there.”
Ngannou would have never fought Whyte because there would be no money in a fight of that kind. Dillian is viewed as washed.