Anthony Joshua vs. Francis Ngannou Prediction: Can Ngannou Pull off the Upset?
Francis Ngannou and Anthony Joshua are back in action tonight as they face each other in a heavyweight bout. Can Ngannou pull off the upset? Ben Rajavuori answers.
Ben Rajavuori
| 7 min
Anthony Joshua vs. Francis Ngannou Prediction: Can Ngannou Pull off the Upset?
Francis Ngannou and Anthony Joshua are back in action tonight as they face each other in a heavyweight bout from Kingdom Arena in Riyadh. Anthony Joshua‘s last fight was just 3 months ago when he fought and beat Otto Wallin back on December 23. Francis Ngannou is coming off a close split decision loss against the champion, Tyson Fury, a fight that no one expected him to win as a massive underdog, but he took to the final round. The oddsmakers have Ngannou listed as an underdog once again, as he is +330 against Joshua. What is the best bet in this fight?
ANTHONY JOSHUA VS. FRANCIS NGANNOU DATE, START TIME, Where to Watch
- Date: Friday, March 8, 2024
- Anthony Joshua vs. Francis Ngannou Start Time: 6:20 p.m. ET
- Where to Watch: DAZN
ANTHONY JOSHUA VS. FRANCIS NGANNOU Prediction
A lot of people, including me, were surprised by Francis Ngannou's pro boxing debut against the champion Tyson Fury. Fury is unbeaten in his career and has not been close to losing many times in his career, but Ngannou knocked him down in the third round of that fight and even took the fight on one judge's scorecard. While he fell by decision, it was a very promising debut for Ngannou after many were critiquing his move to pro boxing coming into that fight. That fight alone proves that Ngannou can have a career in boxing and even can stand up against the top heavyweight boxers in the world.
Anthony Joshua is coming off three straight victories, which helped him bounce back after losing back-to-back fights against Oleksandr Usyk and losing the championship. A few fights prior to those bouts against Oleksandr, Joshua suffered the only knockout loss of his career to Andy Ruiz. While he followed that up with a unanimous decision win later that year, his career trajectory had a huge question mark attached to it before rebounding against Jermaine Franklin Jr. in April of last year. Joshua has been busy over the past year and now enters this fight with some momentum back under his belt. This fight is a big risk for him, however, because Ngannou is notorious for having one of the hardest punches in the entire world, which many of his opponents had to endure in the UFC.
The longer this fight goes, the more trouble Ngannou will get into. Ngannou himself has stated that he does not have 10 rounds of cardio in him, and his best moments will be early in the fight, as they were against Tyson fury when he knocked him down in the third round. As the fight goes on, he will lose steam, and Joshua will only keep it up, as he has gone late into fights throughout his entire career as a career boxer, while Ngannou has been a career MMA fighter before this.
Ngannou's best chance in this fight is definitely a knockout. Joshua is the more technically sound boxer and has a big advantage given that he has been in boxing for his entire career. After getting knocked out by Andy Ruiz in the first fight after extending on his combinations and getting hit with the counter, Joshua sharpened up and stayed outside of Ruiz's range for the entire rematch, which ultimately resulted in the unanimous decision win. This fight will feel similar, as Joshua will be looking to evade Ngannou's power shots and just touch him up from range.
However, Ngannou has a very different build than Ruiz and also has a longer reach of nine inches. Ngannou will actually have a one-inch reach advantage in this fight, which will pose an interesting threat to Joshua‘s plan of staying on the outside. If Ngannou can close the distance, all he needs is one shot to land, as he is an extremely powerful hitter That may have some of the hardest-hitting power Joshua has ever faced. When facing Ngannou, it only takes one, but with Joshua’s movement, he could make it very difficult for Ngannou to land. I am going to take a stab on Ngannou to win this fight by knockout, as I believe he has the power to knock Joshua out and can land a hard shot early. The odds are nearly 4-1 for Ngannou to land a knockout in this fight, and I like him to bounce back from the loss to Tyson Fury with the biggest win of his career.
ANTHONY JOSHUA VS. FRANCIS NGANNOU PICK
- Pick: Ngannou By Knockout/TKO +390 Click here to see which sportsbook has the best odds
- Sprinkle: Ngannou Wins in Round 2 +2600 Click here to see which sportsbook has the best odds
BOXING ODDS
