Former lineal heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua knocked Francis Ngannou out cold in the second round of their bout on Friday.
Joshua (28-3), who is en route to his third heavyweight title, was the better boxer throughout the short match and scored a total of three knockdowns.
Ngannou (0-2 boxing, 17-3-0 UFC), who dumped the UFC for the PFL last year, made hundreds of headlines immediately after he signed up to fight WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.
Though it was going to be Ngannou’s first pro boxing bout, many believed he could beat a seasoned champion like Fury because of one thing: the MMA artist’s knockout power.
This belief was justified in the course of their bout when ‘The Predator’ knocked down Fury in the third segment of their ten-round bout and nearly outpointed him too. Though ‘The Gypsy King’ went on to announce the winner, many respectable figures in boxing still hold that the crossover fighter won.
Following his display of good boxing skills and punch power, the Cameroonian saw an opportunity to fight some of the biggest heavyweight boxers, while the WBA controversially placed him among their top ten boxers.
He was expected to fight former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, but the American lost in a huge upset to New Zealand’s Joseph Parker and is yet to return. So Ngannou signed a fight contract with Anthony Joshua, who had beaten Swedish southpaw Otto Wallin in five rounds at the same event.
Due to the assumed fragility of Joshua’s mind after his double loss to Oleksandr Usyk, many saw the fight contract as an unnecessary risk. If Ngannou were to catch the Brit with the same punch that dropped Fury, it might be impossible for the lighter boxer to continue the fight.
Famous musician Drake staked a bet worth $615,000 on Ngannou, and he must have had hope in the pugilist’s punch power too.
Joshua said post-fight to DAZN, “He’s an inspiration, this takes nothing away from his capabilities
.He can do boxing, he can go a long way. He’s fought the best…
I’m still learning still pushing. I’m still hungry.
I don’t know if I’m coming into my peak. But it only takes one second in the heavyweight division.
If that was me, you’d have been saying I should retire!”
Among those who reacted to the defeat was heavyweight contender Derek Chisora who said:
“Francis, I’ve been doing loads of interviews and I came up with a nickname for you.
I call you the Superman of Africa because the way you have come up in the game and everything you have done is amazing for us Africans.
So the best name for me to give to you is the Superman of Africa because most kids in Africa right now look up to you – and what you have achieved so far is unbelievable.”
Joshua praised Ngannou’s courage too, asking him to continue in the sport. Many rightly expect Ngannou to lick his wounds and return to the sport a better contender. The man himself announced he was going to do the same.
