Anthony Joshua earned staggering amount per punch after knocking out Francis Ngannou in second round

09/03/2024 13:36

Anthony Joshua needed just 12 punches to knock out Francis Ngannou.

The Watford powerhouse was in red-hot form as he dispatched Ngannou inside two rounds at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Friday night.

A composed Joshua dropped Ngannou twice before sending him down and out at the end of the second stanza with a clubbing right hand.

According to Compubox’s punch stats, AJ landed 12 shots in total.

Five of them were power punches while the other seven were jabs.

By comparison, Ngannou landed eight blows, broken down into three power punches and five jabs.

Both boxers earned a pretty penny for their efforts on what was a very short night’s work.

Joshua pocketed $50million (£39.8m) while Ngannou received $20m (£15.7m).

As a lump sum, these paydays are no doubt impressive but the numbers are even more staggering when you consider how much they earned per punch.

Joshua banked a stunning £3.3m for every strike he scored while Ngannou wasn’t far behind with £2.5m per punch.

It’s incredible to think that the Cameroonian cage fighter earned more from one punch against AJ than he did in any of his MMA fights.

Despite being a former UFC heavyweight champion, Ngannou never received a nine-figure paycheque with the sport’s premier promotion.

He reportedly made somewhere in the region of $22,500 (£17,472) for his company debut in 2015 while he was paid $90,000 (£69,892) for his UFC heavyweight title eliminator with Alistair Overeem.

It wasn’t until he fought for the strap against Stipe Miocic in 2018 that he broke six figures but even then his $500,000 (£388,290) purse was far less than what most top heavyweights earn in boxing.

The largest sum he ever received was $600,000 (£465,948) for facing Ciryl Gane in what ended up being his last outing under the UFC banner.