Anthony Joshua has been in a bullish mood in the latest round of interviews ahead of his fight this weekend with Francis Ngannou and now he has said will ‘mentally explore’ his opponent.
Joshua is fighting for a fourth time in just 11 months on Saturday. Last year he began his comeback trail after two back-to-back points losses to Oleksandr Usyk that saw him lose and then fail to regain his three world titles.
In the last 12 months however, he has his confidence back and is knocking people the same way he did early on in his career. After a points win against Jermaine Franklin, he stopped both Robert Helenius and Otto Wallin and now faces ex-UFC champion Ngannou.
This will be only the French-Cameroonian’s second professional boxing match fight following his impressive debut against Tyson Fury in October last year which saw him knock down the WBC champion and push him hard on points but ultimately come up short.
Speaking to Queensbury Promotions, Joshua has now been musing on the mental aspect of the sport.
Everything’s mental. Even on an elite level, the person at home, everything’s mental, it’s all about what’s going on up here in your mind. That’s what I need to figure out.
“Yeah people have got their strengths but they say boxing is 80% mental. The physical fight is one thing but the mentality of a fighter is there think I need to figure out and expose in the fight.”