Francis Ngannou is confident he can knockout Anthony Joshua this Friday, March 8th in Riyadh. He’s seen enough of AJ’s fights from scouting him to know that he’s got a chin problem and will fold under his power in their headliner on PPV at the Kingdom Arena.
We don’t know what to expect from Joshua (27-3, 24 KOs) because he hasn’t fought an opponent with the kind of power that Ngannou possesses since his fight against Wladimir Klitschko in 2017, and he was in sorry shape in that contest from the seventh round. AJ isn’t a spring chicken anymore, and some believe his chin has never fully recovered from being staggered and dropped by Wladimir in that fight.
Ngannou feels that his shots will KO Joshua and many boxing fans are starting to believe he’ll do a number on AJ.
The real question is whether Joshua will come to fight or if he’ll play it safe, adopting the safety first Klitschko-esque style that he adopted for his rematch with Andy Ruiz Jr. in 2019. In that fight, Joshua moved around constantly, jabbing and holding his lead hand far out in front of him to keep Ruiz from getting near.
It was a copy of the Eastern European style that Wladimir used, and it worked for Joshua against the badly out of shape Ruiz Jr. Whether that style would have been successful against a trime, well-conditioned Ruiz is the magical questkion.
Ngannou: One Punch is All It Takes
“Of course, I believe if I land on anybody, I can knock them out,” said Francis Ngannou to Sky Sports Boxing when asked if he believes he can knock out Anthony Joshua if he hits him cleanly this Friday night on March 8th.
“Now, the question is harder to land. I think that’s the harder thing. Almost everybody in this division can knock everybody out, but how to land? How to carry that power and that energy from first round to fifth round to the tenth round and still be able to hit somebody hard and knock somebody out. So, it’s a matter of a chess game.
“I didn’t have any experience in boxing, but I had a lot of experience in life and in fighting. So, I think I have to use my fighting spirit. I didn’t have any experience, but I know I can fight. Throw me somewhere, I know I can fight. I have the fighting instinct. I’ve heard it said, ‘You’re born as a fighter. You don’t become a fighter,’ and I do believe that,” said Ngannou.
