Francis Ngannou has hit out at the starting time of his defeat to Anthony Joshua in Saudi Arabia earlier this month, with the former UFC Heavyweight champion claiming he fell asleep in the dressing room before making his way to the ring shortly before 3 am local time. Ngannou, 37, was stopped by the ex-two-time boxing heavyweight champion inside two rounds – a huge disappointment after scoring a knockdown in the narrow defeat to WBC champ Tyson Fury late last year.
However, the Cameroonian MMA legend has claimed the late start time of the fight negatively affected him. “I was conscious right after [the knockout,] and since then everything’s been good,” Ngannou said on Instagram Live. “I’m still going to runs some medical work, just in case. I remember being in the locker (room) trying to warm up, and bro, it wasn’t going well. I was falling asleep. I’m sweating, but I was falling asleep.
“But I’m sure that’s how some people that I have fought and have beaten have been before .. no blame on anybody, the blame here is all on me. it is the game, unfortunately. We all knew it could happen (the knockout). I wasn’t seeing it happen like that, but I always knew it could happen. At least, I was always prepared for that.”
Ngannou added to MMA Hour: “Listen, I think we both fight at 3 am. It’s not like I fought at 3 a.m. and he fought at like midnight or something. We both fought at 3 am. What I think, something that’s happened is that they get me to the arena very early. Like my pickup time was 10.30 pm to go to the arena. And then when we get to the arena, they tell us that we are scheduled around 1.45 am. right?
“They come to the locker around 1 and Joshua [was just arriving around 1]. I’m like, ‘OK, we are fighting at the same time, how come I have a pickup time?’ We received a schedule, an email, and then for some reason I was there at least one hour before. But for the fight, at least two hours beforehand.
“They do this kind of trick to get you tired. I was like cool, I was like, ‘Bro, it’s OK.’ I didn’t know how it was, how important that was, until the fight day that I have to get there two hours before.”
The defeat has prevented Ngannou from moving on to a potential boxing heavyweight title fight with Fury or Oleksandr Usyk. Joshua is now expected to get another title shot at either the Gypsy King or the Ukrainian, with the pathway becoming clearer following the fight in May.
Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn have made it clear the preference is a mega-fight with Fury. AJ already has back-to-back defeats to Usyk on his record.