Francis Ngannou claims he was victim of 'trick' which led to brutal Anthony Joshua KO

19/03/2024 14:02

Francis Ngannou believes he was ‘tricked’ just hours before his brutal KO loss to Anthony Joshua.

The Cameroon star was knocked out cold in the second round of his latest boxing fight with Anthony Joshua on March 8 in Saudi Arabia.

It was a damaging defeat for the ex-UFC champion, who was knocked down three times in total, and was simply outclassed in just his second squared circle appearance.

Ngannou had provided a new reason for his performance against AJ, insisting he was falling asleep during his warm-up before entering the ring.

And in a new admission since he was left unconscious, ‘The Predator’ believes his early arrival was part of a clever ‘trick’.

He explained on the MMA Hour: “Listen, we both fought at 3am. What I think happened is that they get me to the arena very early. Like my pickup time was 10.30pm to go to the arena.

“And then when we get to the arena, they tell us that we are scheduled around 1:45am right?

“They come to the locker around 1am 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 okay.’ I didn’t know how important that was, until the fight day that I had to get there two hours before.”

Ngannou did suggest hours after the event that he was reluctant to make excuses, insisting the blame fell entirely on his shoulders.

He had made a serious impression on his boxing debut dropping Tyson Fury during a narrow points loss.

But he now faces a much different future, having lost his ranking in the top ten of the WBC heavyweight rankings.

The 38-year-old has confirmed he will return to boxing despite the tough night, and could face options such as Deontay Wilder or Dillian Whyte.

Whyte was unimpressed with Ngannou’s performance and has insisted that he would also stop him if the pair did battle.

But Ngannou could instead prioritise a return to MMA, where he has yet to compete after signing a new deal with promotion PFL.