Francis Ngannou alleges that he was deceived as he seeks to rationalize Anthony Joshua’s knockout.
Although Joshua brutally knocked out Ngannou in the second round, Ngannou maintains that his performance was influenced by the fight’s delayed start time.
Anthony Joshua’s fight against Francis Ngannou was affected by the late start time, according to Ngannou.
Earlier this month, Ngannou faced former two-time heavyweight world champion Joshua in Saudi Arabia but unfortunately suffered a brutal knockout during the second round. The fight began at 3am local time and according to Ngannou, he felt its impact.
According to Ngannou’s remarks on The MMA Hour, he believes that both him and his opponent fought at 3am, dispelling any notion of one fighter having an unfair advantage due to the timing of their bout. However, Ngannou suspects that the reason for this misconception is because he was brought to the arena earlier than usual with a pickup time of 10:30pm and informed upon arrival that his fight would take place around 1:45am.
Around 1 o’clock, they arrived at the locker room and Joshua just appeared. I couldn’t help but question why we were fighting simultaneously yet I had an earlier pickup time despite receiving a schedule via email beforehand. On that day, I found myself waiting there for over an hour before mounting tension ahead of my fight required me to be present two hours prior – something supposedly done by organizers to wear you out early on in anticipation of your bout’s commencement – even though it was okay with me as ignorance veiled its significance until D-day itself when it became apparent how important this pre-fight arrival window actually is.
In the opening round, Joshua managed to send Ngannou crashing down but he somehow survived till the end of it. However, in the second round, he was knocked down once more and even though he tried regaining his balance yet again; soon thereafter got knocked out cold by Joshua. Adding on to this ordeal is that Ngannou himself confessed about having only hazy memories of what went down during their fight.
He stated that he was absent when the altercation occurred. As soon as it began, during the initial minute of receiving a blow, his main focus was on being bewildered by falling from its impact rather than on the hit itself. Although in sparring sessions one may concede to having experienced painful hits yet still remain unscathed, there are instances where someone delivers such severe punches that they resonate with force and you’re left thinking “Wow! This person really packs a punch!”
Taking the first punch, I was conscious yet numb. Suddenly finding myself on the ground, confusion set in as I wondered what had happened. With a count against me for being knocked down, I decided to slowly rise back up and things remained slightly fuzzy.
I walked over to the corner and engaged in conversation. They spoke while I listened, my memory and vision unfailing as time passed by. However, at some point during that interval on the stool, I lost awareness of being there altogether; all recollection ceases until after returning for round two – but even then it remains unclear when exactly this occurred or what transpired thereafter since noticeably absent during breaks between rounds.
