‘Huge risk for AJ’: Expert predictions for Anthony Joshua v Francis Ngannou fight

On Friday, two of the hardest hitters from the worlds of MMA and boxing collide at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Joshua will be bidding to save boxing’s reputation after the Cameroonian cage fighter dropped and almost stopped Tyson Fury during their nip-and-tuck affair in October.

Ahead of the Fury fight few gave Ngannou even the slimmest chance of victory but many felt he had done enough to win it when the final bell sounded.

It’s a similar story here, with most anticipating that Joshua, a two-time unified heavyweight champion and Olympic gold medalist, should get the better of the boxing novice - although not everyone agrees.

Here, talkSPORT.com takes a look at some stand-out industry picks for Joshua vs Ngannou.

Who is backing Ngannou?

DAN HARDY

Former UFC welterweight contender Dan Hardy was one of the few experts who stuck his neck out and picked Ngannou to ‘surprise’ Fury.

And, he was equally insistent on Ngannou’s chances against Joshua when he caught up with talkSPORT.com earlier this week.

“First of all, he’s got the confidence that he can do ten rounds now after doing ten rounds against Fury, which means that we’re going to get a Ngannou who is going to be more willing to engage and more willing to push a pace.

“Rather than kind of stand his ground and pick his punches like he did against Fury.

“I feel like he’s going to be a bit more of a bully against AJ. And I don’t think that works out very well for AJ because you’ve got to remember he’s in the process of rebuilding himself right now.

“Ngannou is 0-1 in professional boxing, and he’s a huge, huge risk for AJ. Now, Fury is going to look at that risk and go ‘yeah, okay, but I’ve got the skills, I’ll be able to tie him up and make him miss, etc, etc.

“I don’t know if AJ has got that same kind of internal confidence that just emanates from him like it does from Fury.

“And I think if, for example, AJ hits the canvas like Fury did, does he get back up with the same kind of confidence to be able to regroup? I’m not so sure.”

MARTIN BAKOLE

You will be hard-pressed to find boxers who are genuinely backing Ngannou to beat Joshua but one of them is Congolese heavyweight Martin Bakole.

Bakole has shared several rounds of sparring with Joshua over the years, but he is backing Ngannou to knock the Brit out after watching the Fury fight.

“He [Fury] took Ngannou easy, not too serious. He thought he would stop him by round five but Ngannou took it serious and thought that if he stops Tyson Fury he will make a name for himself in boxing.

“To be honest, Joshua is going to be different [to Fury] because Joshua saw Ngannou was coming to box [versus Fury] as well, he will take it serious.

“Ngannou as well is coming into it, wanting to make a name for himself in boxing, everyone is surprised [at how good he looked] after the Tyson Fury fight.

“He is a good man, he has got a good heart and he’s got everything up there, if he lands on Joshua, I think that he will stop him because this time he is taking it seriously as well, and he will be working hard on it [his boxing skills].”

JOE JOYCE

British heavyweight Joe Joyce thinks AJ should be worried about Ngannou’s power but backs the former world champion to come through.

Speaking to talkSPORT, he said: “He’s got heavyweight power. He’s very motivated and dedicated to the sport.

“He started in boxing and then made the change to UFC.

“He’s shown he’s a really good fighter

“Both of them have extremely good physiques, and it’s a real battle.

“I think it’s a really good fight, and I am excited to see it.”

Joyce then revealed to DAZN that he thinks Ngannou can KO Joshua.

He said: “If Francis lands a big bomb on Joshua’s chin, Joshua’s going down. Equally, Joshua’s got power and if he can put them punches together and use his experience, probably keep it a lot more long-range, I can see why some are making him the favourite.

“If the odds are good for a Francis knockout, I’m putting my money on that. It’s a 50-50 fight. I’ll say Joshua on points or Ngannou for the upset by KO.”

SHAUN GEORGE

Zhilei Zhang’s trainer Shaun George believes that Ngannou is going to win.

He said: “Joshua gets stopped, that’s my opinion.

“I’m the one to say it: Anthony Joshua gets stopped in this fight.

“Joshua is the better boxer; he should win this fight.

“But when I look at Francis Ngannou... you got to take into consideration that the rhythm is different... MMA fighters go against boxers and their rhythm is different, they fight at a different pace.

“I’m not sure Anthony Joshua can make that adjustment.”

Who is backing Joshua?

DEREK CHISORA

Derek Chisora is convinced that Joshua will knock out Ngannou in what will be his ‘hardest fight ever’.

Speaking on Fight Night live on talkSPORT, Chisora said: “This is AJ’s hardest fight of all his fights. For the simple reason that it’s the unknown. He [Ngannou] has only gone 10 rounds with Tyson Fury.

“There is so much pressure on AJ that he’s representing boxing, representing all of us right now. For himself, for his name, for his dignity, it comes with so much pressure.

“It’s the unknown and this will be his hardest fight ever.”

Then making a prediction, he continued: “It’s going to be a hard fight for him, but I can guarantee you this, [Joshua] is going to knock him out.”

RICKY HATTON

Ricky Hatton believes Joshua has ‘enough firepower’ to shine against Ngannou.

“If you’re asking where my money would go, it would go on AJ because he’s an exceptional boxer, you don’t become an Olympic gold medalist and a two-time world champion for nothing,” he said.

“He doesn’t have the lateral movement of Tyson Fury, so he’s going to be standing in front of Francis Ngannou, which worries me a little bit because if AJ does cop one, that could be that.

“But I’m going to go with AJ based on his confidence and his new team. I think he’ll have enough firepower to shine against Ngannou.”

AMIR KHAN

Amir Khan expects Joshua to learn from Fury’s mistakes and get the better of Ngannou.

“I don’t know if Tyson took his foot off the gas, not expecting what he came to do,” Khan told the Sun.

“But the fight with Joshua, Joshua’s gonna know now how hard he gave a fight to Fury.

“So, I’m sure he’s going to be on his A-game. He’s not going to make the same mistakes, and he’s going to train very hard for this fight.

“Because like I said, maybe Tyson overlooked him and thought it was going to be a walk in the park, but really he surprised us all.

“So I think this is only going to make Joshua train even harder. But, I got Joshua winning.

“I think it could be a mid-round, mid-fight knockout maybe four, five, six rounds. Or, it could be a 12-round decision.”

ANGEL FERNANDEZ

AJ’s former trainer Angel Fernandez believes he will come out on top against Ngannou this week to help rebuild his reputation.

Speaking to talkSPORT.com, Fernandez explained: “With fighters you have to start to come back into confidence and belief a bit more in yourself. You have to give him time and progression to get that confidence back.

“If we had two or three fights in between that we win, to get back to who he was before. Now, hopefully, Ben [Davison] brings that out of AJ.

“Any fight is dangerous, especially against Ngannou. Both are great fighters. I think the game plan for AJ is to sit behind the jab, footwork and use the distance.

“That doesn’t mean on the back foot, but he needs to instead get Ngannou to fight on the back foot, so I believe he can get the win.”

JOHNNY NELSON

Johnny Nelson is extremely confident that Joshua will do the business next week.

“I think he [Joshua] comes through it with flying colours,” Nelson told Sky Sports.

“I think Joshua wants to be world champion again, I think Joshua knows what responsibility he will have. He will know ‘I just have to get through this fight and get the win’ because of the big pot of gold at the end of it.

“Joshua knows he can punch. Joshua knows he has the knockout ability to get rid of him, so I would not be surprised if Anthony Joshua thought ‘I am going to stay in the pocket and knock you out’.

“Common sense would be, if you use your boxing ability, it is day and night. But it is the devil in the detail and that is where the problem might lie.”

JAKE PAUL

Jake Paul thinks that now Joshua is back to his ‘old self’ he will be too much for Ngannou.

“It’ll be interesting but I think it will be hard for Francis to beat a Joshua that has looked like his old self, whereas I think Ngannou had an old, lacklustre, not focused Fury,” Paul told the Sun.

“I want Francis to win, but I think it’s going to be tough for him.”

SPENCER OLIVER

talkSPORT’s Spencer Oliver anticipates that Joshua will beat Ngannou over the distance despite the ‘Knockout Chaos’ billing.

During a recent episode of talkBOXING, Oliver said of the fight: “I think the fight goes the distance.

“I think Anthony Joshua through Tyson Fury and the fight he had with Ngannou, Joshua now knows what he’s going in with.

“Francis Ngannou is a dangerous guy, he is very strong, he is fearless so he will punch when his opponent punches.

“He did that against Tyson Fury, he waited, the timing was brilliant with that, he is very dangerous and very heavy-handed.

“Joshua respects that and I think what Anthony Joshua will do is he will go out there and look to systematically break Ngannou down.

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“He will play it safe, he won’t sit in the pocket too long, he will use a lot of movement and he will look to drill those shots through.

“He could get the late stoppage but I see Joshua winning widely on points.”

- talkSPORT