Heavyweight boxer Anthony Joshua once beat offers precise five-point gameplan for Francis Ngannou - "Come out fast and bully"
Francis Ngannou is set to face Anthony Joshua in a highly anticipated boxing match next week. As Ngannou prepares for his second professional boxing bout, Jermain Franklin has offered a five-point game plan for the challenger.
Ngannou, who almost dropped Tyson Fury in their October 2023 fight, is considered an underdog against Joshua, who has won his last three matches.
Franklin, who fell to Joshua via TKO in August last year, believes Ngannou can pull off an upset with his given strategy:
"Francis needs to do these five things, 1. He needs to come out fast and bully AJ, Joshua does not like to be bullied. 2. He must use his jab to set up his power, he cannot look for one shot to take him out. 3. Francis needs to stay patient and wait for the opening like he did with Fury. 4. He will need to take AJ’s power, and if he can do that, he has a major chance to win. 5. He must focus on working the body and using angles to counter AJ’s power.”[H/t: Mirror Fighting]
Check out the fight promo of Anthony Joshua vs. Francis Ngannou below:
Francis Ngannou acknowledges power advantage, emphasizes strategy ahead of Anthony Joshua fight
Francis Ngannou is confident in his ability to knock out Anthony Joshua in their upcoming boxing match. However, he acknowledges that landing a clean punch against a skilled opponent like Joshua presents a significant challenge.
In an interview with Sky Sports Boxing, Ngannou stated:
"Of course, I believe if I land on anybody, I'll knock him out. Now, the question is how to land. I think that's the hardest thing. Everybody in this division, almost everybody here, can knock everybody out, but how to land, how to carry that power, that energy from [the] first round to the fifth round to the tenth round and still be able to hit somebody hard, knock somebody out after all the fatigue and everything, is a chess game."
'The Predator,' is scheduled to face Joshua, a former two-time unified heavyweight boxing champion, on March 8 at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Check out Francis Ngannou's claims in the video below (2:16):