By Abimbola Ologun
Anthony Joshua has defeated Francis Ngannou with a second-round knockout win at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Friday night.
Joshua drew first blood in the opening round. Ngannou appeared to be getting comfortable when the Brit dropped him with a clean right hand.
Joshua came out in the second round ready to prove the knockdown was no fluke. A crushing right hand once again found a home and sent Ngannou to the mat. The former UFC champion beat the count only to have Joshua immediately flatten him again, bringing the end of the fight.
Joshua has been working himself up to another title shot since suffering back-to-back losses to Oleksandr Usyk. Since dropping the second fight by split decision he has earned wins over Jermaine Franklin, Robert Helenius and Otto Wallin.
A win over Ngannou actually means quite a bit after his performance in his professional boxing debut. The former UFC heavyweight champion stunned the world when he battled Tyson Fury to a split-decision loss in his first foray into the sweet science.
Ngannou was surprisingly good, and his fight-changing power translated to boxing better than most expected.
Analysts were much less impressed with Ngannou’s boxing skills this time around:
Joshua, who has struggled at times with his confidence, was able to put that behind him and beat a powerful, strong opponent this time around. If promoter Eddie Hearn is correct, this was just a steppingstone to Joshua once again holding a world title.
“I’m telling you now: if we get through Friday, which may be our toughest challenge, he’s going to do it all,” Hearn told Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie. “He’ll beat Fury and knock him out. But let’s just watch through the fingers on Friday and hope we come out good.”
Now that Joshua has come out good, the attention could shift to a bout with Tyson Fury. Both men have left their mark on the heavyweight division but they still have yet to fight each other.
