Anthony Joshua submitted an early knockout of the year candidate.
You could call it “unbelievable,” but then again, Friday night’s bout pitted a former unified heavyweight champion in Joshua against a former UFC heavyweight title holder in Francis Ngannou, who competes in mixed martial arts and specializes in a vastly different discipline.
Joshua took down Ngannou in the second round of their heavyweight fight in Saudi Arabia in convincing fashion after knocking him down twice before.
Ngannou was a popular underdog heading into the fight with Joshua on the heels of his controversially split-decision loss to WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in October, when the former UFC star dropped Fury in the fight and narrowly lost on the cards.
Ngannou generated a ton of excitement prior to his bout with Joshua — excitement that was blasted away by the right hand of the London native, who dropped Ngannou three times in the bout, winning with an explosive second-round knockout.
Joshua initially knocked Ngannou down late in the first round with a straight right hand.
He had been tactically setting up Ngannou with basic left-hand jabs to the body and a collection of feints to draw reactions from his opponent, and he did at every turn.
The process landed in a knockdown from Joshua, which Ngannou never seemed to fully recover from.
In the second round, Ngannou was again dropped by Joshua, this time with an overhand right.
This came after Joshua peppered Ngannou with jabs to the body before changing levels and scoring the knockdown.
Seconds after Ngannou got back up a second time, Joshua emphatically ended the fight against a dazed Ngannou with another overhand right.
Joshua feinted once more before the final blow to draw another reaction from Ngannou, but the Cameroon fighter didn’t muster up any form of defense, prompting the Brit to deliver the go-home punch.
Joshua, the consensus No. 3 heavyweight in boxing, elevated his record to 28-3 with 25 knockouts with the statement victory, dropping Ngannou to 0-2 as a boxer.
Ngannou is scheduled to return to MMA later this year with PFL.
