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KINGDOM ARENA, RIYADH — Skill and experience prevailed in the bout dubbed “Knockout Chaos”, with Anthony Joshua scoring a crushing second-round knockout over former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou. The official time was 2:38.
Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs) decked Ngannou in the opening round with a straight right and the writing was on the wall that quickly. Two more brutal rights were enough to close the show in the second and Ngannou’s dream of making it big in elite-level boxing was left in tatters.
“It is what it is,” said Joshua in understatement. “I thought it was something for the broadcasters, but when I saw [Ngannou’s fight] with Tyson Fury, I was like damn, he can fight. This doesn’t take anything away from his capabilities. He can come again.”
“It is what it is,” said Joshua in understatement. “I thought it was something for the broadcasters, but when I saw [Ngannou’s fight] with Tyson Fury, I was like damn, he can fight. This doesn’t take anything away from his capabilities. He can come again.”
Joshua’s solid run of form continues. Since losing back-to-back decisions against Oleksandr Usyk, the British star has put together four wins in a row and he’s looking very sharp under the tutelage of trainer Ben Davison.
A world title fight now beckons for AJ, who wants to join the exclusive club of three-time heavyweight champions in boxing history. Only Muhammad Ali, Evander Holyfield (four-time champion), Lennox Lewis and Michael Moorer have ever pulled it off. Only Ali has claimed the lineal title three times.
Tyson Fury and Usyk collide on May 18 in Riyadh to decide the undisputed championship and there’s a rematch clause in place. However, the IBF has said that the winner must face mandatory challenger Filip Hrgovic or be stripped of that version of the title.
If Fury-Usyk is competitive, then a direct rematch is what the boxing world would want to see – belts be damned. With that being the case, Hrgovic would fight for the vacant IBF title against the next-rated challenger who happens to be AJ.
Despite all of this, promoter Eddie Hearn told DAZN that Turki Alalshikh vowed that the AJ-Ngannou winner would face the Fury-Usyk winner. There are plenty of moving parts, so we’ll see how things play out in the coming months.
Ngannou falls to 0-2.
