Anthony Joshua\u2019s coach explains why Francis Ngannou got knocked out Associated PressAnthony Joshua\u2019s coach has explained Francis Ngannou\u2019s critical error, which stopped the mega fight prematurely in round two. Francis Ngannou, a former UFC champion, fought Anthony Joshua, a former boxing world champion, in a combat sports \u201csuper fight\u201d on March 8. The fight lasted less than two rounds, with Joshua sending Ngannou to the canvas on three occasions, including the final knockout blow. Joshua\u2019s coach, Ben Davison, appeared on an MMA Hour episode and explained why Ngannou\u2019s trademark chin didn\u2019t hold up. Anthony Joshua targeted Francis Ngannou\u2019s weakness Host Ariel Helwani asked what game planning against Ngannou looked like, as he only had one boxing match under his belt at the time. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t really use or take much information from [his UFC fights]. But he did have that one fight with Fury, and we did find some tendencies,\u201d Davison said. Helwani pushed for greater detail about those tendencies, and Davison obliged. \u201c[Ngannou] struggles to defend the right hand from southpaw stance, and that\u2019s what led to the knockout. \u201cI just think [switching stances] was a mistake on his behalf. I don\u2019t think Francis doesn\u2019t have a chin, but I don\u2019t think it had ever been tested properly. \u201cIt\u2019s just, I think no matter how good your chin is when you\u2019re getting hit with punches that you can\u2019t see by somebody like Anthony Joshua \u2013 no chin is going to hold up against that.\u201d Ngannou receives high praise from Joshua\u2019s coach Davison is a well-known trainer who gets credit for helping Tyson Fury overcome severe personal issues en route to becoming champion. The long-time trainer offered encouragement for Ngannou\u2019s boxing aspirations. \u201cI think [the Fury fight] was a fight that didn\u2019t really make sense at the time,\u201d Davison remarked. \u201cBut, you know, post that fight, it did make sense. [Ngannou] put in a fantastic performance. \u201cAnd I genuinely do believe, even now, he\u2019s a credible world-class heavyweight whether that\u2019s boxing or MMA.\u201d Even after a devastating loss in his second career boxing match, Ngannou is receiving high praise from many in the sport and Davison firmly believes in Ngannou\u2019s chances of carving out a successful boxing career. \u201cI think he would be a handful for anybody,\u201d Joshua\u2019s trainer said emphatically.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Anthony Joshua\u2019s coach explains why Francis Ngannou got knocked out Associated PressAnthony Joshua\u2019s coach has explained Francis Ngannou\u2019s critical error, which stopped the mega fight prematurely in round two. Francis Ngannou, a former UFC champion, fought Anthony Joshua, a former boxing world champion, in a combat sports \u201csuper fight\u201d on March 8. The fight lasted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21453\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}