Anthony Joshua faces Daniel Dubois next weekend in his effort to become a three-time heavyweight world champion. Anthony Joshua revealed that he was able to KO Francis Ngannou after studying from Tyson Fury’s battle with the former UFC champion.
Ngannou defeated Fury over ten rounds last year after coming off the mat in the third round. The British boxer was handed the win on the scorecards after giving the newcomer a run for his money. But Joshua had no such troubles, defeating Ngannou in the second round.
Anthony Joshua speaks out (Image: Getty Images)
Joshua, will attempt to become a three-time heavyweight world champion when he takes on Daniel Dubois at Wembley next weekend. And he revealed he was able to learn “tricks” from Fury’s fight with the Cameroonian.
“Let’s say I meet someone who can meet my main attribute, which is my strength,” Joshua told DAZN. “I always look at the Ngannou fight, the guy was a juggernaut. He was massive and I thought to myself if I only depended on strength it would have been a lot tougher fight. But due to the fact I went through a process where I tried to improve my IQ, I was able to dispatch of the Goliath in quick fashion.
“I’m not saying he was an elite boxer but I took it on the on the premises of what he done with Tyson Fury who was the WBC champion, he gave Fury one of the toughest nights in the ring. Due to the fact I went away and studied, learned about some tricks, I was able to dispatch him in two roads when the champion of the world struggled to take him 10 rounds.”
Joshua lost his world titles to Oleksandr Usyk before losing his rematch with the Ukrainian. Since then he has racked up wins over Jermaine Franklin, Robert Helenius, Otto Wallin and Ngannou. And the Olympic gold medalist insists he never stopped believing he would return to the top.
“I came off two defeats to him, you always believe in yourself but it’s hard when people stop believing in you,” he added. “You have a lot of pressure from people saying you’re not the same fighter anymore so you go through a rebuild. I’m not saying I’ve beaten world champion after world champion but to get to a world championship you have to take steps. I always felt I could hurt people but in heavyweight everyone can, thats what makes it exciting. It wasn’t so much, ‘can I do it’, it was, ‘how good am I?'”
