21 January 2024 , 12:01
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Anthony Joshua has been warned "wrecking ball" Francis Ngannou could derail his world title dreams.
Joshua will take on the former UFC world champion in Saudi Arabia on March 8, less than five months after Ngannou stunned Tyson Fury by dropping him in the third round before slipping to a points defeat. He has been rewarded for that performance with a shot at Joshua who had been due to take on Deontay Wilder before he was beaten by Joseph Parker.
Joshua is the odds-on favourite to KO Ngannou, a result which could lead to a fight against the winner of Fury's undisputed heavyweight world title fight against Oleksandr Usyk next month. But former world champion Carl Froch has warned Joshua not to take Ngannou lightly.
"Ngannou is big and strong and has distance and timing, he's got a good boxer's eye, so he has more than a chance of causing the upset. I expect AJ to thoroughly outbox him as an Olympic champion should," he told Lord Ping. "The sensible thing for AJ to do is to use his boxing ability, the ability he learned over the years from Rob McCracken. From being an amateur with Rob McCracken to becoming a world champion under Rob McCracken.
"He should use his skills he learned from the guy who guided him to an Olympic gold medal and two world titles. If he uses those skills against Ngannou it could be a shutout points performance. But Ngannou is a born fighter, a wrecking ball, a f******* machine and if he sticks it on AJ and shows him no respect, from what I saw against Fury, anything could happen, he could make it a nightmare for AJ. He will come and have a go, but AJ should be able to shut him down with movement, but it's not a foregone conclusion."
Eddie Hearn opens talks for Anthony Joshua vs Francis Ngannou heavyweight fight
Joshua won all three of his fights in 2023 as he bids to return to the top of the heavyweight division, but Ngannou is determined to derail that ambition. He said: “I’m going to come as an underdog to win the fight. I will get this done, I’m just a beginner. I will come out better and that’s how I see things. I prepared for a hard fight. The Fury fight is in the past and I will take this more serious than before because there’s more on the line, the undisputed.
"I will do something nobody has done before and I have the tools to do that. It will not be an easy fight, but a possible one (to win)." Joshua's promoter and Matchroom Boxing boss Eddie Hearn added: "If you can imagine the winner of this fight against the winner of Fury v Usyk, it’s been a long dream of Anthony and his team to be undisputed."