Francis Ngannou gets brutally eliminated by Anthony Joshua in the second round.
Hello and welcome to Riyadh’s Kingdom Arena for tonight’s crossover match between Anthony Joshua and Francis Ngannou,
It’s been billed as the Knockout Chaos: a scheduled 10-round bout under boxing rules between the former two-time unified heavyweight champion amnd a former UFC champion with exactly one professional boxing match under his belt.
Joshua (27-3, 24 KO), at 34 years old, has won three straight bouts after back-to-back defeats ot Oleksandr Usyk and is still angling for another run at a heavyweight belt. But the 2012 Olympic gold medalist has put those plans on hold for a highly lucrative date with the 37-year-old Ngannou, who defied all expectations five months ago with a disputed split-decision loss to lineal heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, scoring the only knockdown of the evening along the way. Fury may have won the fight, but Ngannou clearly won the event.
That automatically makes Ngannou (0-1, 0 KO) an awfully intriguing proposition entering tonight’s sophomore outing. But was Ngannou really that good against Fury, or was Fury that poor in overlooking the Cameroonian neophyte? We’ll have answers soon enough.
We’re around an hour from the main event ringwalks. Plenty to come between now and then.
Ngannou down in round one!
Joshua darts in with a jab to the body. Ngannou looking more comfortable than he did in the early stages against Fury. Joshua lands another nice left jab. Joshua blocks a Ngannou right hook upstairs with his glove. Ngannou switches from orthodox to southpaw with about a minute left in the round. What confidence! And just like that, Joshua detonates a massive right hand on Ngannou’s chin and Ngannou is down in a heap! And Ngannou is hurt! He beats the count at nine and there’s about 40 seconds till the bell. Will he make it? And he does! What a first round!
Joshua knocks out Ngannou in round two!
The fight continues on even terms for two minute until Ngannou goes down with about a minute left in the round, a heavy straight right-left hook combination. And this time the Cameroonian looks in serious trouble. Ngannou somehow makes it to his feet, but Joshua wastes no time: the Briton surges into the pocket and drops him with a heat-seeking overhand right that leaves Ngannous out cold on the canvas. The referee Richard Gonzales immediately waves it off and it’s over! Anthony Joshua has defeated Francis Ngannou with a savage knockout.