Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn states that he saw fear in Francis Ngannou during his face-off with Anthony Joshua today at the weigh-in for their ten-round contest on DAZN PPV.
Hearn feels that Ngannou is out of his comfort zone going up against Joshua, who is light years ahead of him in experience in the squared circle.
If the moment is getting to Ngannou, Hearn postulates that he could gas out quickly and be at Joshua’s mercy in the second half of their ten-round contest.
Joshua vs. Ngannou will meet at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; AJ is the favorite to win this important contest.
Hearn Analyzes the Ngannou vs. Joshua Dynamic
“I’ll be honest with you. I saw a nervous Francis Ngannou. He’s not in his comfort zone. I would be petrified if I was Francis Ngannou,” said Eddie Hearn to the media after watching Anthony Joshua and Ngannou during the face-off after they weighed in for their clash on Friday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
If Hearn believes that Ngannou will listen to his comments and fight half-heartedly on Friday, he’s sadly mistaken. He’s not suddenly going to be afraid to let his hands go just because Hearn saw fear in his eyes during the face-off. If anything, the fear could make Ngannou fight harder in the first three to four rounds, and that could be bad for Joshua if his chin betrays him again.
“We can say that Francis Ngannou is strong and punches hard. He does all those things,” said Hearn. “Ask yourself this question. Who would you rather fight? Let’s say you have to get in there on Friday night. Who would you rather fight?
“You have to choose Ngannou because you know you’re going to get peppered by AJ and smashed to pieces. With Ngannou, at least you have a guy who hasn’t done it that often. So, I feel like Ngannou knows he’s in for [it],” said Hearn.
Words of Caution for Joshua
“Being nervous up there doesn’t really mean anything as to what’s going to happen on Friday,” Hearn continued. “They’re still going to be all the things he can be, which is strong, dangerous, tough, resilient, but we [Joshua] should be schooling this guy.”
Nervousness does mean something if you’ve got a fighter who has quit in them, and some would argue that Ryan Garcia is a prime example of that with the way he quit against Gervonta Davis. But Ngannou has never shown the tendency to let fear govern his behavior in combat sports, and he’s unlikely to start now.
“I believe he will. We just got to be smart, switched on, and get the job done,” said Hearn about the job Joshua has in front of him against Ngannou.
Of course, Hearn could be wrong, given that Joshua has shown himself to be a mental basketcase in the past, and it’s not a secret that the slick-talking British promoter had to pull him back to the elementary stages of his career, matching him against three consecutive ham & eggers after his two defeats against Oleksandr Usyk.
