Anthony Joshua has stood by his original comments about a fight against Francis Ngannou being a “gimmick”.
Former two-time heavyweight champion Joshua originally played down a potential fight against Ngannou but will now face the former UFC champion on March 8. The fight came around after Ngannou put on a stunning performance against Tyson Fury in his boxing debut and Deontay Wilder ruined his two-fight deal with Joshua by shockingly losing to Joseph Parker.
Joshua explained why his thoughts on the fight changed after Wilder lost to Parker on the undercard of his knockout win against Otto Wallin. “That was my route, to stick in boxing. They spoke about this fight before and I said ‘Nah, it’s a gimmick fight.’ It’s not something that I think is right,” he said.
“Crossing over when I am still chasing heavyweight glory. When they saw what happened with his last fight and the situation with Deontay Wilder, this opportunity presented itself. I have never turned down a challenge and I’m looking forward to it. It’s the biggest challenge of my life.”
Ngannou laughed off Joshua changing his tune on the fight by saying: “It’s still a gimmick fight, the fight is a gimmick. I think it’s very funny because I think of a gimmick fight like… this is a crossover. It’s my second pro fight. In my first two boxing matches I am taking on two of the top three heavyweight boxers of this generation. It’s a good challenge and it’s very interesting.”
Ngannou silenced his critics by dropping Fury in their crossover fight and he doesn’t think Joshua has the same resilience to get back up if he lands a similar punch. The winner of their fight has been promised an undisputed world title shot against either Fury or Oleksandr Usyk, but Ngannou has insisted that he isn’t interested in fighting for belts.
