UFC champion-turned-boxer Francis Ngannou accused Anthony Joshua’s promotion team of using unfair tactics following their bout in Saudi Arabia.
Ngannou made his boxing debut in 2023 when he faced and was defeated by former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury via split decision. ‘The Predator’ didn’t allow this to deter him, and he got into the ring with Anthony Joshua in March. The bout ended with Joshua’s KO victory.
Following this loss, Ngannou strongly believes the British boxing promoters conspired against him by assisting Joshua.
“We get into fight week, and every time we’re going to do media, they’re going to pick me up, and then I get there and have to wait an hour and a half before (media) arrives,” Francis said, speaking with Joe Rogan on The Joe Rogan Experience. “On the third day of fight week, (striking coach) Dewey Cooper started to get very mad, ‘This is what they do to get fighters tired!’ But at the time, I didn’t know what was going on. So I’m like, ‘No, come on, relax. It’s okay. I didn’t know until we get to fight day.”
“Fight day, we receive an email. Pickup time: 10:30 from the hotel.” Ngannou continued. “And when they say 10:30, by 10:20, there’s a car at your door waiting. The supposed fight time is between midnight to 1. We get to the arena at 10:45. A producer comes into the locker room says, ‘Oh, guy, we are running late on the broadcast. Now we’re gonna go around 1:45.’ I’m like, okay, 1:45. It’s 10:45. 3 hours. Okay.”
“It was around 1:30 that (Joshua) arrived. I’m like … so we supposed to fight at 1:45? He’s arriving at 1:30 … we leave the room at 3:30. I have been in Saudi Arabia almost two months training to fight between midnight and 1. But even at that time, I didn’t know what was happening. It was only after everything. Because I got to the point that I was so tired, I was in the locker room hitting mitts, then sitting down falling asleep. Then I tell (coach) Eric Nicksick there’s something wrong. I’m asleep. I feel like I wanna sleep. Like, I’m sweating. But we just keep going.”
Although the fighter feels cheated, he doesn’t blame Anthony Joshua, but he does blame the promoters for the set-up.
“Not to say Anthony Joshua couldn’t beat me. I think if there’s somebody that you can lose against, he’s the guy, he’s one of the best doing it. This is definitely not on him because he wasn’t the guy that was sending all those emails organizing. So, I’m not blaming him for anything. But the organisation, they did quite some stuff that wasn’t fair.”
“His team was part of the organisation because it was Queensbury (Promotions) and Matchroom (Boxing). Those emails were coming to me from them. Those were the people that were sending the schedule, and every day they send everything, the pickup time, the program, the schedule.”
