I Think Joshua Will Have Enough Firepower To Shine Against Ngannou

Ricky Hatton is firmly backing former two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua to topple MMA veteran Francis Ngannou.

Their fight takes place on March 8 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Back g October, Ngannou made his professional debut against WBC champion Tyson Fury. In a very unexpected performance, Ngannou dropped Fury and gave him fits for the entire ten rounds. Fury walked away with a ten round split decision win.

Now Ngannou is up against Joshua – and the British star is coming off one of his best performances in recent years. He demolished Otto Wallin in five rounds back in December.

Hatton is unsure if Ngannou’s performance was a clear sign of his skills or a clear sign that Fury didn’t take the fight seriously.

“We’re in limbo aren’t we – was Ngannou better than we gave him credit for, or did Tyson take Ngannou lightly? Did Tyson not train as hard as he could and that’s why Ngannou looked as good as he did? There’s a big question mark around Ngannou, we all know he can hit, but was it because Tyson took him lightly? All these questions no one is sure about yet. Tyson didn’t physically look as good as he normally does. And he’s also had those three fights with Wilder that may have taken something out of him,” Hatton said to Instant Casino.

“If you’re asking where my money would go, it would go on AJ because he’s an exceptional boxer, you don’t become an Olympic gold medalist and a two time world champion for nothing. He doesn’t have the lateral movement of Tyson Fury, so he’s going to be standing in front of Francis Ngannou, which worries me a little bit because if AJ does cop one, that could be that. But I’m going to go with AJ based on his confidence and his new team. I think he’ll have enough firepower to shine against Ngannou.

“AJ-Ngannou and Fury-Usyk have been arranged so the winners fight and hopefully it’s AJ and Fury, what a sight that would be to see. And also it’s great to see Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren on the same table and working together because I think that’s what boxing needs: promoters working together. To see Frank and Eddie on the same table working together, I thought to myself ‘this is going to be good for our sport’ because I think we’d hit a brick wall in our sport in terms of fights not happening, forget being a trainer or former fighter, just as a boxing fan seeing Eddie and Frank working together was like sunshine for me.”