When Anthony Joshua took on Francis Ngannou earlier this year, the sheer size of his opponent didn’t bother him. But what troubled him was his brute strength and what he had done in his previous fight. The visuals of the former UFC champion almost edging out Tyson Fury and him lying on the floor, bewildered, were still fresh in the fans’ memories. But ‘AJ’ made it look easy. How did he do that?
Joshua, 34, went toe-to-toe with Ngannou, 38, and knocked him out within 2 rounds. That’s not how the fans or promoters had seen it go down. But Joshua, at 28-3, pulled right punches and exploited his opponent’s weakness. When he sat down with DAZN Boxing to promote his coming fight with Daniel Dubois, he also went down memory lane and detailed what he did right.
The British boxer pointed out he knew he had to be smart and rely on his boxing IQ instead of his strength. He had to wait for openings and seize those with ruthlessness, and that’s what he did. Joshua said, “The guy was a juggernaut. He was massive. And I thought to myself, ‘If I only depended on strength, it would have been a lot tougher fight.’ But due to the fact that I’ve gone through a process where I’ve tried to improve my IQ, I was able to dispatch of a goliath in quick fashion.”
Following this, the Watford native shed light on the decision to fight him, and stressed what his opponent had done in his last fight with ‘Gypsy King’. Ngannou then became a yardstick, which Joshua wanted to do better than. He continued, “I’m not saying he was an elite boxer. But I took it on the premise of what he did vs Tyson Fury, who was the WBC champion. He gave Fury one of his toughest nights in the ring.”
This win set the former two-time champion on a course to another title fight and a possible shot at getting the winner of Oleksandr Usyk vs. Fury. He now can first bag the IBF title and then target the undisputed glory. But Joshua has to go through Dubois, 27, first.
The point which will decide Anthony Joshua vs. Daniel Dubois battle
Frank Warren, in a conversation with BoxingScene, discussed the upcoming Joshua vs. Dubois fight. The promoter noted how Joshua was vulnerable at counters. He added, “I want him [Anthony Joshua] to come out and throw those right hands at my man. Because that’s where he is vulnerable. He gets countered easy.”
The Queensberry lynchpin believed how the two boxers reacted to getting clipped would decide the fight. It remains to be seen whether the two will come up with a different and cautious strategy or whether they will stick to their aggressive approach.
What do you make of these comments by Joshua about Ngannou? Do you believe he will replicate the same result against Dubois? Let us know in the comments below.
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