Francis Ngannou will enter his “Knockout Chaos” main event on DAZN with a 20-pound weight advantage over Anthony Joshua.
That may give “The Predator” — no stranger to power records — the edge in their heavyweight headliner on Friday night (March 8, 2024) at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, assuming he can find a way to deal with the faster and more dynamic “AJ.”
That’s according to longtime boxing promoter Eddie Hearn.
“Ngannou is huge,” Hearn told MMA Junkie. “I’m quite fascinated by the size of him. AJ’s a massive man, but Ngannou’s legs — everything. He’s got a lot of confidence going into this fight. He should be petrified. But he’s really not, and that’s worrying in itself. AJ’s better than him in itself. But he’s very strong, he’s very powerful and he punches very hard. And in this division, that can get you to victory.”
Ngannou, three years older than Joshua at 37, shocked the boxing community with his commanding performance against Tyson Fury last Oct. in Riyadh. The loss established “The Predator” — now listed in the WBC heavyweight rankings — as a major player in the “sweet science” and no longer the “gimmick fight” that “AJ” thought he was in early 2023.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how he’s improved,” Hearn said. “AJ’s a different beast. Fury and AJ have got different attributes. AJ’s very fast, and punches very hard. And it’ll be interesting to see — and Fury said to me, ‘I hit Ngannou hard and he didn’t move.’ And I was like, ‘Ah.’ So we’ll see if he can stand up to the speed and power of AJ.”
Whoever prevails in this Friday night’s contest could score the winner of Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk, depending on what happens in the co-main event between Joseph Parker and Zhang Zhilei — who both want to stake their claim for the heavyweight title.
“The only way Ngannou can win is to land a shot on AJ at some point during the fight,” Hearn said. “There’s no way that Francis can win rounds against AJ repetitively. So he has to win this fight by knockout. And as the rounds go on and he gets tired, the power will start to diminish.”
We’ll find out in roughly 24 hours on DAZN (sign up here).
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