Francis Ngannou did not perform as expected when he tasted defeat at the hands of a monstrous Anthony Joshua knockout earlier this month, but maybe that’s because the former UFC heavyweight champion was falling asleep during backstage warmups.
Ngannou was a betting underdog for his boxing match with Joshua in Saudi Arabia, but he was supposed to put up more of a fight than he did. Having nearly defeated Tyson Fury in his professional boxing debut late last year, “Predator” had many fight fans believing he’d be able to upset Joshua and once again disrupt boxing’s heavyweight pecking order. Unfortunately, Ngannou failed to do any of that in his second appearance inside of the boxing ring.
Instead of pulling off an upset Ngannou essentially fell flat on his face. Joshua clobbered him with multiple knockdowns early into the fight culminating with a thunderous right hand finish in the second. The knockout left Ngannou unconscious and fight fans wondering what the hell had just happened.
While Ngannou isn’t making any excuses for his performance and vows to continue his boxing career, the former UFC king did acknowledge that he felt flat before he even made his walk to the ring. In fact, Ngannou nearly fell asleep backstage waiting for his main event bout to start.
“We all knew it could happen,” said Ngannou earlier this week during an Instagram Live session. “I wasn’t seeing it happen like that, but I always knew it could happen. At least, I was always prepared for that.”
“I remember being in the locker [room] trying to warm up, and bro, it wasn’t going,” he later added. “I was falling asleep. I’m sweating, but I’m falling asleep.
“But I assume that’s how some people I have fought, some people that I beat have felt before, but it was basically my first time to feel that. That’s why I kind of took a couple days out, I took some time for me. I obviously had to reflect on everything that’s happened through the fight.”
Ngannou, who is expected to return to mixed martial arts (MMA) for his official Professional Fighters League (PFL) debut later this year, will have plenty of time to recover from the first knockout loss of his combat career. Fight fans will have to wait and see if Ngannou’s boxing career if officially over or if he can somehow salvage it at the end of this year or in 2025.