Boxing Bout: Joshua quickly knocks Ngannou out
Francis Ngannou had perhaps the best loss in a professional debut boxing has ever seen. Then he faced Anthony Joshua.
The former UFC heavyweight champion was knocked out cold in just two rounds by the former unified heavyweight champion, who proved to be much more of a problem for Ngannou than WBC champion Tyson Fury had in October.
Ngannou entered that Fury match as a heavy underdog against the champion — one promoter called the matchup “a disgrace” — but he differentiated himself from the many MMA fighters-turned-boxers with a performance that wouldn’t have looked out of place from a seasoned heavyweight contender. He managed to knock down Fury in the third round and had the crowd chanting his name in the final round.
He had no such luck Friday in Riyadh. He was knocked down once in the first round and twice in the second, likely ending the Cameroonian’s short-lived boxing career.
In a slog of a co-main event, Zhilei Zhang scored two knockdowns against Joseph Parker, but it wasn’t enough as Parker walked away with a majority decision to claim the WBC interim heavyweight title. Zhang took his foot off the pedal after both knockdowns, which came in rounds 3 and 6, and Parker stayed busy enough for the points win.
“I feel like we’re on the up now, Zhang is a tough man,” Parker said in his post-fight interview. “He knocked me down twice. I’m very happy, I’m going to go home and celebrate. Hard work, hard work, hard work. It’s an incredible feeling, look where we are. What’s next is I’m fighting Zhang again, that’s what we’re contracted to.”
