Francis Ngannou has dropped some absolute bombshells regarding his recent boxing match against Anthony Joshua in Saudi Arabia- and the details are about some of his off the ring experiences.
A former UFC heavyweight champion, Ngannou made his second professional boxing appearance against Joshua on 8th March in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The thrilling bout concluded with, Joshua emerging victorious securing a second-round knockout of Ngannou.
The aftermath of the fight followed much discussions- from how Joshua, the former unified world champion, performed better against “The Predator” than Tyson Fury did back in October, to many questioning about Ngannou’s future in the squared circle.
However, nearly two weeks since the bout, Ngannou has come forward with some shocking revelations about the different treatment he was getting in Saudi Arabia compared to Joshua.
Francis Ngannou says he was brought to the arena much before Anthony Joshua
Speaking to Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Ngannou claimed that there were some “tricks” that made him more tired when heading into the AJ fight, while also pointing out how he was brought to the Kingdom Arena hours before the bout, while Joshua arrived just some moments before.
“Listen, I think we both fight at 3 a.m. It’s not like I fought at 3 a.m. and he fought at like midnight or something. We both fought at 3 a.m. What I think, something that’s happened is that they get me to the arena very early. Like my pickup time was 10.30 p.m. to go to the arena. And then when we get to the arena, they tell us that we are scheduled around 1.45 a.m. right?” said Ngannou.
“They come to the locker around 1 and Joshua (was just arriving around 1). I’m like, ‘OK, we are fighting at the same time, how come I have a pickup time?’ We received a schedule, an email, and then for some reason I was there at least one hour before. But for the fight, at least two hours beforehand. They do this kind of trick to get you tired. I was like, ‘Cool.’ I was like, ‘Bro, it’s OK.’ I didn’t know how it was, how important that was, until the fight day that I have to get there two hours before,” he added. [H/T MMA News]
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