Former UFC heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou, has accused British-Nigerian boxer, Anthony Joshua, and his promotion team of employing unfair and dirty tactics during their recent bout in Saudi Arabia where Joshua defeated the Cameroonian.
Ngannou who spoke on ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ podcast on Friday, gave details of a series of incidents he believes were designed by the Joshua team to give the former world heavyweight champion an edge in their fight.
The Cameroonian fighter, who made his professional boxing debut against Tyson Fury in 2023, claimed that British boxing promoters deliberately disrupted his preparation schedule to give Joshua the edge in the fight.
“We get into fight week, and every time we’re going to do media, they’re going to pick me up, and then I get there and have to wait an hour and a half before media arrives,” Ngannou narrated.
He stated that his striking coach, Dewey Cooper, became suspicious of the deliberate delays which he interpreted to be a tactic to make fighters get tired quickly.
Ngannou also recounted issues on the day of the fight, describing how he arrived at the arena hours before the scheduled fight time, only to be informed of a significant delay.
“A producer comes into the locker room and says, ‘Oh, guy, we are running late on the broadcast. Now we’re going to go around 1:45.’ I’m like, okay, 1:45. It’s 10:45. Three hours. Okay.”
Ngannou who refused to blame Joshua directly for these incidents, however, pointed accusing fingers at the organising bodies.
“This is definitely not on him – Joshua, because he wasn’t the guy that was sending all those emails, organizing. So I’m not blaming him for anything. But the organisation did quite some stuff that wasn’t fair,” Ngannou stated.
Despite the allegations, Ngannou acknowledged Joshua as a skillful fighter.
“Not to say Anthony Joshua couldn’t beat me. I think if there’s somebody that you can lose against, he’s the guy; he’s one of the best doing it,” Ngannou concluded.