AJ delivers ferocious KO of Ngannou to set the stage for a huge British Fury fight
ANTHONY JOSHUA defeated Francis Ngannou in two sensational rounds to cement his place in the world heavyweight title race.
The same man who took Tyson Fury the distance of ten rounds on his boxing debut in October – and dropped the WBC Gypsy King – never laid a glove on our 34-year-old superstar.
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AJ was perfect, calm and measured, but also ruthless and ferocious. He put the former UFC star on the ground twice before delivering the knockout punch.
Ngannou initially jumped off Riyadh’s canvas twice, but it took him forever to recover from the final blow that almost took his Swede-like head off.
He was then given oxygen after being helped to his corner.
After finally getting back on his feet, Joshua told the cameras, “It is what it is.
“On the way to the championship you always have to stay focused and I had to distance myself from the mission. I thought it was just a gimmick for the broadcasters.
“When I saw the Tyson Fury fight I thought, damn, this guy can fight, I want a piece of that.
“I wanted to welcome him and this doesn’t take anything away from him, he can come again.
“I’m still learning and pushing, I don’t know if I’ll reach my peak. If I was down there, you’d say, ‘Anthony Joshua needs to retire.’
“In five years I will be done with fighting and sitting, and all this will be a distant memory.
“I’ll go back and lock myself in my cage and they can let me out if they want me to fight. I just want to fight.”
Before the anthems and introductions – around 4:30 am local time, as the British boxing press began to worry about catching their Saturday flight home – AJ fell to his knees in his red corner and prayed.
The London 2012 legend then wandered around the ring as ‘Predator’ Ngannou stood stock still in his blue section of the Riyadh arena.
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AJ immediately continued his textbook jab, poking at the 37-year-old’s massive torso and head.
The Cameroonian giant threw lead left hooks – which he said he knew had caused AJ problems throughout his amateur and pro career.
And then AJ suddenly detonated an excellent right hand, sending Ngannou to the canvas and nearly getting out of the count.
The novice boxer looked ready, but he showed enormous heart – to match his muscles – to climb back up and survive the remaining 45 seconds that must have felt like a lifetime.
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And Ngannou was floored again by a violent right-left hook in the second, but bravely beat the count for a second time.
But he bounced off the canvas too quickly and AJ knocked him into another dimension with a sickening shot that doubled his giant leg in half and forced the referee to wave off the one-sided demolition — without even wasting his breath on a count.
For a fight that was all about pitting the kings of MMA and boxing against each other, the front row was made up of pure football kings.
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AJ’s strike – for a former bricklayer who says he only does the razzamatazz for the paying fans – was more Siegfried and Roy than bricks.
Not bad for a man who said in the run-up: “It’s not about how you walk in, but how you walk out.
“That’s my opinion. But at the same time I know it’s not for me, it’s for the crowd. I only do it for the crowd.
‘I’ve come in without music before. It’s a job. You want to go in there and do your job at the end of the day.
And he clocked out early – without working a six-minute shift in the evening – putting the MMA man back in his rightful place.
And he can now wait patiently to see Fury and Oleksandr Usyk – the man who took the WBA, IBF and WBO world titles from him with two painful points losses – finish on May 18.
Because Joshua – thanks to this display and Otto Wallin’s destruction in October – is now back to brilliant and brutal levels.
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