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Anthony Joshua And Francis Ngannou Come Face-To-Face: “I Will Test His Chin”

Written by Kerr Ferguson on 15th January 2024.

Joshua Ngannou Video

Anthony Joshua and Francis Ngannou officially announced their ten-round heavyweight contest set for March 8 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The two-time unified heavyweight world champion will make it four fights in twelve months when he steps into the ring against 0-1 Ngannou – a man who was UFC Champion before entering boxing and knocking down Tyson Fury.

It was that split-decision loss that found Ngannou here across from one of boxing’s biggest superstars. ‘AJ’ was last out in December, a five round blowout of Otto Wallin.

Despite some suggestions he may be waiting it out for a vacant world title shot after Fury and Oleksandr Usyk come together on February 17, Joshua’s team instead choose a money-spinning bout against WBC number 10 ranked Ngannou.

Here’s what was said…

Anthony Joshua

“Every fight leads to somewhere. So this fight is my everything, my mind, my spirit, my soul, my body. We’ll see where it leads me. Right now I’m not thinking about any championship belts or anything. My main focus is Francis and getting through an intense training camp, because realistically how I train is how I fight. If I get victory in my training camp I’ll get victory on the night. Right now we’ll put the belts on hold.”

“I won’t say too much, but he brings two arms, a body, like every other fighter does. It’s just his mind that’s different. Everyone is unique in their own way … He’s seen people like me, I’ve seen people like him, it’s just his mind that I’ll have to conquer in the ring. You have to take someone’s soul, their spirit, and I’m looking forward to the challenge for sure. It’s gonna be explosive, but there’s many ways to skin a cat. I can counterpunch, he can counterpunch, we can both box, as he’s proven himself. We can both trade. It’s gonna be a good, good fight.”

“Thanks to my team for getting me in this position to showcase why I’m the top heavyweight in the UK. I’m not too concerned about the world, I’m trying to conquer where I live. I just want to let everyone know that I’m the one who puts boxing on the map.”

Francis Ngannou

“First of all I want to thank everybody here to make this press conference great. Thank you to my brother, his excellency, for one more time again putting me in this position to live my dream. To have all those experiences, such as the one I had in Riyadh months ago. It was amazing. Hopefully this will be the same.

I’ve been sitting here listening to people talking, even Eddie praising me, which I appreciate, but at the same time, I’m not sure if he’s honest or if he just wants to get me [to] slip on his guy. That’s not going to happen. I’m just a beginner out here that’s gonna train really hard and do everything and come as the underdog to win the fight. I don’t take my last fight as a reference. I think that I get this done. I know exactly where I am at. I’m just a beginner. I’m definitely get better and better. That’s how I see things. I’m getting prepared for a hard fight.

The Tyson Fury fight was great, but that’s now in the past and I have a new challenge in front of me and I take it more serious now. There is something more on the line. Probably the undisputed. Maybe I will do something that nobody has done before.”

“I’ve heard that he doesn’t have a chin. I don’t know if it’s true or not, we’re gonna find out. I hope I have the opportunity to test that out. That’s what I’m wishing for.”