Face Off! ‘AJ’ Stares Down Ngannou In London

Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images

Anthony Joshua will not be intimidated.
“AJ” came face-to-face with former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou at the conclusion of their kickoff press conference earlier today in…


Anthony Joshua v Francis Ngannou Press Conference
Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images

Anthony Joshua will not be intimidated.

“AJ” came face-to-face with former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou at the conclusion of their kickoff press conference earlier today in London (watch it here), held in advance of their pay-per-view (PPV) boxing showdown on March 8 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Check out their staredown video embedded above.

“Every fight leads to somewhere,” Joshua said. ”This fight is my everything: my soul, my spirit, my mind, my body. Right now I’m not thinking about any championship belts. My main focus is Francis and getting through an intensive, focused training camp, because how I train is how I fight. I won’t say too much, but he brings two arms, a body, like every other fighter does. But it’s just his mind is different to everyone. Everyone has their own unique… like, they’re unique in their own way.”

Defeating Ngannou could lead to the winner of Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk.

“In terms of the frame and the make-up of someone, he’s seen people like me, I’ve seen people like him many times before, but it’s just his mind that I have to conquer in the ring,” Joshua continued. “You have to take someone’s soul, you have to take their spirit. And I’m looking forward to the challenge for sure. And that’s it really, it’s going to be good. It’s going to be explosive, but [there are] many ways to skin a cat. I can counter punch, he can counter punch, we can both box as he’s proven himself to. We can both trade [punches] and it’s going to be a good, good fight.”

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