Francis Ngannou blames himself for his crushing loss to former two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. Ngannou (0-2) says he’s not giving up on boxing despite how things ended in his second professional fight in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
According to the former UFC champion Ngannou, it just wasn’t his night last Friday. He didn’t feel well in the dressing room, and things got worse when he got in the ring and was dropped when he made the mistake of turning southpaw in round one.
That was a move that Ngannou wish he hadn’t done because he’d been fighting well before turning switching southpaw. Joshua’s confidence shot through the roof after he knocked Ngannou down, and he didn’t have the skills to take advantage of AJ’s aggressiveness like Andy Ruiz Jr. did in their first fight.
Ngannou doesn’t say who he plans on fighting next when he does return to the ring for his next boxing match. He will return to MMA for a fight and then be available to box.
Fans have been interested in seeing a clash between Ngannou and former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder. Both guys are roughly the same age and in the same career position, coming off defeats.
A Boxers Resolve
“It wasn’t my day. That’s not to say that the fight results would have been different, but it wasn’t my day,” said Francis Ngannou to iFL TV YouTube channel, discussing his loss to Anthony Joshua last Friday night.
“I just have to let you know that it’s not over yet; Not all all. We’re just getting started,” Ngannou said about his boxing career. I think we have a good amount of time ahead of us.
Ngannou had the power to succeed in the fight, but the skills weren’t there and his decision-making was all wrong for this level of fighter.
The Blame Game
“I remember it wasn’t going in the locker room. I was feeling asleep,” Ngannou continued, saying he didn’t feel at his best immediately before the fight with Joshua. “It was my first time to feel that.”
It sounds like Ngannou was afraid for the first time, and he didn’t know how to deal with it. In hindsight, Ngannou would have been better off it he’d gone all-out in the opening round rather than standing frozen in front of Joshua, allowing him to bomb him with right hands.
“I think I was the one that didn’t execute the plan properly and maybe didn’t feel completely present. There’s no blame on anybody. All the blame is on me,” said Ngannou.
“I wasn’t saying it was going to happen like that, but I always knew it could happen,” said Ngannou about his understanding of going into the fight with Joshua and that he could get knocked out.
