Francis Ngannou visited Joe Rogan's program and talked about the fights with Tyson Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) and Anthony Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs), shedding new light on some issues.
"In total for the fight with Fury I trained for four months. First a month in Cameroon, then I went to negotiate and sign a contract, and then it was three months before the fight. Everything was different for me, so initially I sparred three rounds and over time we added more. During the fight I noticed that when I was in my normal stance, Fury would come at me and press me, but when I got into a left-handed stance, he started to think more and the pace slowed down. That's why I've been put out left-handed so often. I had a very good eighth round, but in the ninth round I had a crisis. Before the last round I regained my strength and I was able to keep boxing. I think I should have won the fight on points, and actually I won it. There was a rematch clause in the contract, but only if I reached the eighth round. But the rematch didn't happen because the timing wasn't right," said the former UFC heavyweight champion, who is scheduled to return to MMA before the end of the year and fight for the PFL belt held by Renan Ferreira (13-3).
"The preparation for the Joshua fight was better. A month before the deadline, I had four sparring sessions of ten rounds each with the best sparring partners. The difference, however, was that no one was betting on me against Fury and Joshua was suddenly expected to do something special. There was something else. All the week before the fight, when we had various events, we were brought in an hour and a half early. My trainer was furious and accused the organizers of doing this just to tire me out. Joshua was arriving on time. I didn't understand it then and reassured my coach that it was nothing, but today I see it differently. On the day of the fight we arrived at the gym at 22:45. In the locker room we immediately heard that the broadcast was delayed and we would get in the ring around 1:45. Then I look and see that Joshua arrived at the arena at 1:30 local time. I thought at the time, "How is that possible if we have to fight in fifteen minutes?" We ended up getting in the ring at 3:30. At some point in the locker room, having gone so many hours without food, because I usually eat five hours before the fight, I felt sleepy and tired. Of course, I don't want to say that if it wasn't for that, I would have beaten Joshua. I don't. I don't even blame him, he just did his thing. I blame the organizers for that. Anyway, something was wrong with me and I felt weird," Ngannou stated.
The Cameroonian added that he will probably return to boxing after one or two fights in MMA.
Watch this story: Helwani on Usyk vs. Tyson Fury rematch: "I'm not ready to throw Tyson off my game yet"