Former two-time unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua 26-3 (23) has mocked rival Tyson Fury 34-0-1 (24) for almost losing to boxing debutant Francis Ngannou 0-1 at Boulevard Hall in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on October 28.
The consensus option was that WBC heavyweight titleholder Fury would wipe the floor with the ex-UFC heavyweight champion, but the 37-year-old French-Cameroonian had different ideas. Ngannou had Fury on the deck in the third from a left hook and showed surprisingly solid boxing fundamentals, enough to take the 35-year-old Brit to a split decision in their 10-round non-title fight.
Even though he won it was an embarrassing performance by Fury, who not only struggled to get going but also looked terribly out of shape in the ring.
Now after years of being labeled nothing but a bodybuilder by Fury, Joshua has hit back.
“Bodybuilders up, dossers down,” Joshua said to TNT Sports Boxing.
“He just looked like a flat slob that just can’t fight. He says that bodybuilders can’t fight, but he got smacked up by one.
“I’ve always wanted to get in the ring with him. He does a lot of talking, calls me a bodybuilder and stuff, but I want to marvel at the African power – he’s a bodybuilder, steps in and smacks him up for me.
“I think Ngannou won. But the judges are there for a reason, they score it how they score it and they’re professionals at what they do and I’m just an observer. Fury won, but from a fan’s point of view, I think Ngannou won.”
Britain’s Joshua, 34, is little more than a week away from a fight against Swedish southpaw and fellow heavyweight contender Otto Wallin 26-1 (14) at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on December 23.
Fury’s next outing is slated to be a unification bout against Ukrainian southpaw and WBA, WBO, IBF and Ring Magazine heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usky 21-0 (14), who lifted those titles from Joshua by points decision two years ago.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn says he favoured Fury to defeat Usyk before the Ngannou debacle, but now he is not so sure.
“I really believed he was quite a strong favorite pre-Ngannou,” the Matchroom Boxing boss admitted to MMA Fighting.
“We don’t really know physically where he’s at. I mean, he’s lucky that Usyk’s not a puncher, he’s lucky Usyk’s a much smaller man. Because I think against a bigger guy, against a puncher, against a guy that can wrestle him on the inside, I think his confidence really wouldn’t be there in a fight like that.
“So I do think Fury will win the fight, but you certainly can’t rule out Usyk, and we just don’t know where [Fury is] at physically or mentally after a fight like that [against Ngannou]. He didn’t look himself in that fight, but perhaps he was just ill-prepared.”