Claressa Shields is a boxing star competing in MMA and she believes Francis Ngannou must be taken seriously against Anthony Joshua; Shields warns her rivals that she is getting even better; Joshua and Ngannou will meet in heavyweight clash live on Sky Sports Box Office on March 8
Claressa Shields, the boxing star who also competes in MMA, expects Anthony Joshua versus Francis Ngannou to be a close fight. In fact she thinks it will be so tight she is tipping it to be a split decision.
Ngannou is a former UFC heavyweight champion who has only had one professional boxing contest. On March 8, live on Sky Sports Box Office, he will take on two-time unified titlist Anthony Joshua.
Tyson Fury beat Ngannou on a contentious split decision in his last fight and Shields believes Joshua could have a difficult contest too with the mixed martial artist.
“I think it’s going to be a good fight. At first I kind of felt that AJ was going to knock out Ngannou, that’s how I saw the fight. Now it’s kind of shifted on, I feel like it’ll be a split decision going either guy’s way,” Shields told Sky Sports.
“I say that because it feels like AJ has a lot to prove and I feel like when he’s got a lot to prove sometimes he puts too much pressure on himself and he doesn’t fight his fight. And if he doesn’t fight his fight against Francis, Francis is a big, strong and powerful guy too so it can be a closer fight.
“I believe that AJ has everything in the tank to beat Francis. He just has to do it.”
