Francis Ngannou has claimed that Anthony Joshua and his promoting team used dirty tactics to give him an edge in their Saudi bout.
Francis Ngannou made his boxing debut with a stunning performance against fellow heavyweight Tyson Fury in 2023 but has taken issue with his 2nd professional bout with Anthony Joshua claiming some bad faith and dirty tactics.
Ngannou, speaking with Joe Rogan on ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’, shared that he believes British boxing promoters plotted against him, saying:
“We get into fight week, and every time we’re going to do media, they’re going to pick me up and then I get there and have to wait an hour and a half before (media) arrives. On the third day of fight week, (striking coach) Dewey Cooper started to get very mad, ‘This is what they do to get fighters tired!’ But at the time I didn’t know what was going on. So I’m like ‘No, come on, relax. It’s okay. I didn’t know until we get to fight day.”
Continuing, Francis Ngannou said:
“Fight day, we receive an email. Pickup time: 10:30 from the hotel. And when they say 10:30, by 10:20 there’s a car at your door waiting. The supposed fight time is between midnight to 1. We get to the arena at 10:45. A producer comes into the locker room, says, ‘Oh, guy, we are running late on the broadcast. Now we’re gonna go around 1:45.’ I’m like okay, 1:45. It’s 10:45. 3 hours. Okay.”
Francis Ngannou Doesn’t Blame Anthony Joshua
Francis Ngannou doesn’t put the blame on Joshua himself but on the promotion and organization behind him.
“Not to say Anthony Joshua couldn’t beat me. I think if there’s somebody that you can lose against, he’s the guy, he’s one of the best doing it. This is definitely not on him, because he wasn’t the guy that was sending all those emails, organizing. So I’m not blaming him for anything. But the organization, they did quite some stuff that wasn’t fair.”
“His team was part of the organization because it was Queensbury (Promotions) and Matchroom (Boxing), those emails were coming to me from them. Those were the people that were sending the schedule, and every day they send everything, the pickup time, the program, the schedule.”
Quotes via BJPenn
Francis Ngannou has now turned his attention to the MMA scene preparing for a fight against Renan Ferreira for his new organization PFL.
Do you think Joshua’s tactics affected Francis Ngannou’s performance? Let us know in the comments below!
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