Joshua will take on Ngannou in Saudi Arabia in March after the former UFC champion almost stunned Tyson Fury last October.
Anthony Joshua has been warned “wrecking ball” Francis Ngannou could derail his world title dreams.
Joshua will take on the former UFC world champion in Saudi Arabia on March 8, less than five months after Ngannou stunned Tyson Fury by dropping him in the third round before slipping to a points defeat. He has been rewarded for that performance with a shot at Joshua who had been due to take on Deontay Wilder before he was beaten by Joseph Parker.
Joshua is the odds-on favourite to KO Ngannou, a result which could lead to a fight against the winner of Fury’s undisputed heavyweight world title fight against Oleksandr Usyk next month. But former world champion Carl Froch has warned Joshua not to take Ngannou lightly.
“Ngannou is big and strong and has distance and timing, he’s got a good boxer’s eye, so he has more than a chance of causing the upset. I expect AJ to thoroughly outbox him as an Olympic champion should,” he told Lord Ping. “The sensible thing for AJ to do is to use his boxing ability, the ability he learned over the years from Rob McCracken. From being an amateur with Rob McCracken to becoming a world champion under Rob McCracken.
“He should use his s𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁s he learned from the guy who guided him to an Olympic gold medal and two world titles. If he uses those s𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁s against Ngannou it could be a shutout points performance. But Ngannou is a born fighter, a wrecking ball, a f******* machine and if he sticks it on AJ and shows him no respect, from what I saw against Fury, anything could happen, he could make it a nightmare for AJ. He will come and have a go, but AJ should be able to shut him down with movement, but it’s not a foregone conclusion.”
“I will do something nobody has done before and I have the tools to do that. It will not be an easy fight, but a possible one (to win).” Joshua’s promoter and Matchroom Boxing boss Eddie Hearn added: “If you can imagine the winner of this fight against the winner of Fury v Usyk, it’s been a long dream of Anthony and his team to be undisputed.”
