Anthony Joshua admits "goliath" Francis Ngannou would've been a lot tougher to beat if not for this one change: "The guy was a juggernaut"
Anthony Joshua recently opened up about his boxing encounter with Francis Ngannou earlier this year. Joshua revealed the one change the Brit heavyweight had to make to defeat Ngannou.
Joshua took on Ngannou on March 8 in a 10-round heavyweight showdown, which marked the latter's second-ever professional boxing match after facing Tyson Fury. The event, dubbed 'Knockout Chaos,' was held at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Joshua dropped Ngannou to the ground in round one with a strong right hand. He took advantage of the former UFC heavyweight champion's poor recovery and scored two more knockdowns in the second round, compelling the referee to end the fight.
In a recent interview with DAZN Boxing ahead of his fight against Daniel Dubois, Joshua looked back on his fight against Ngannou. The former two-time unified heavyweight boxing champion admitted that to defeat Ngannou, he had to rely more on his fight IQ than brute force.
He said:
''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 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.''
Joshua continued:
''So I thought this guy, he knows what he's doing and due to the fact that I went away and I studied, I learned about some different tricks, I was able to dispatch of him in two rounds.''
Check out Anthony Joshua's comments below (2:32):
Anthony Joshua talks candidly about what drives him each day
Anthony Joshua is set to face Daniel Dubois for the IBF heavyweight title at Wembley Stadium on Sept. 21. The two fighters will contest for the vacant heavyweight title, which was last held by undisputed champion Oleksandr Usyk.
In the aforementioned interview with DAZN Boxing, Joshua discussed his motivation behind boxing, saying:
''One the main reasons right now is my community. I want to fight for charities...so it's more so now we're trying to create something to help other people so when I fight, I fight with the spirit of thousands of people that I'm trying to help behind me.'' [ 10:48]