“It’s not a gimmick,” Anthony Joshua said as he considered the surreal challenge he faces in Riyadh on Friday night against Francis Ngannou, a former mixed martial artist who has lost his solitary bout as a professional boxer. “This is a serious fight with someone who is prepared and understands the dynamics of boxing after he put up a good fight against an apparently generational great,” Joshua said. “I look at it now as something completely different.”
Before Ngannou shocked Tyson Fury by dropping the WBC world heavyweight champion in the third round of his pro debut last October, words like “gimmick”, “stunt” and “charade” had been used to describe that crossover contest. Joshua settled on “gimmick” when he had first been approached with an offer to fight Ngannou, who was then the heavyweight champion of the UFC, the juggernaut organisation of mixed martial arts.
“They spoke about this fight before and I said: ‘No, it’s a gimmick,’” Joshua said of the 10-round boxing bout. “It’s not something I thought was right, crossing over when I’m chasing heavyweight glory. But when they saw what happened with Ngannou against Fury, this opportunity presented itself again. I never turn down a challenge and we can now get rid of the word ‘gimmick’.
“I looked at MMA crossing over into boxing as a gimmick. But I can now see certain MMA fighters can box – and he’s [Ngannou] one of them. I see him as someone who is serious about boxing. When I saw his fight with Fury I thought: ‘He knows what he’s doing, he can handle himself.’ Lots of people say he won that fight and I thought this is a great challenge for me because I need to figure out more about myself.”
Joshua believes Ngannou was unlucky to lose his non-title bout against Fury on a split-decision. The boxing novice left the usually swaggering world champion with a cut and swollen face. Ngannou also shredded the plans for Fury to face Oleksandr Usyk in a world title unification contest last December. That bout will finally take place in May and Joshua is wise to have prepared hard for Ngannou. He needs a statement victory against a raw boxer as he rebuilds his career following successive defeats to Usyk in 2021 and 2022.
Ngannou is a fighter to his core. He hits hard and has a strong chin. The 37-year-old also showed a solid grasp of boxing fundamentals. But it should not be forgotten that Fury looked shockingly flat and bereft of ideas against Ngannou, who boxed sensibly behind a high guard and decent jab. When the opening came, the MMA champion nailed Fury and knocked him down.
Ngannou was apparently paid $10m (£7.8m) that night, which is more than he made in his entire MMA career, and so his sudden enthusiasm for boxing is understandable. He has claimed that he expects to knock out Joshua and promised: “I’m going to take his soul.”
But Joshua has been notably active over the past 12 months. He even regained some of his old lustre when he was brutally impressive while stopping Otto Wallin in December. That victory was very different to a laboured points decision over Jermaine Franklin, which was followed by a lacklustre performance against Robert Helenius that Joshua salvaged with a clinical knockout.
“I’ve been working the whole year, in terms of last April until March, from my fight with Franklin until now,” Joshua said. “After Ngannou I will have had four fights in a year.”
Joshua also seems to have benefitted from moving to a third new trainer since losing to Usyk. His partnership with Ben Davison, who once trained Fury, brought immediate dividends against Wallin. Joshua said: “It’s the first time since 2017 I’ve had three fights, back-to-back, and getting consistent is paying off again. That’s why fighters do so well on their way up, because they’re fighting every other week and look amazing. The minute you get to the top, it all slows down and the only way out is retirement. I’m trying to rebuild and get that activity.”
Amid the promotion’s craven endorsement of Saudi Arabia, despite increasing concern about a lack of human rights, Joshua accepted that “I’m not at the start or in the middle of my career. I’m probably towards the end.” He craves a world unification title showdown against Fury above all else but, after that fight failed to materialise on so many occasions, Joshua has selected a less conventional route against Ngannou.
“This is still leading me there,” he insisted. “When I win I’ll move onto fighting for the championship. That’s boxing: snakes and ladders. You win, you go up, you lose you slide down. I have to win to continue.”
Joshua’s real test will emerge if Ngannou catches him with a heavy blow. He is not quite the same as Frank Bruno, who froze when he was hit hard, but Joshua often looks close to unravelling when he ships punishment.
Ngannou has promised that he has much more to offer. “I haven’t shocked the world yet,” he declared.
Joe Joyce, the British heavyweight who has sparred with Ngannou, warned that “his power shots are incredible. You want to stay out of the way of them.” Yet Joshua’s intense need to beat Ngannou, who will have lost the element of surprise he brought to his debut, should ensure victory for the vastly more experienced boxer.
