Anthony Joshua vs Francis Ngannou Preview March 8th, 2024
Former Heavyweight Titlist Anthony Joshua of Watford, England steps back into the ring this Friday, March 8th to take on MMA star Francis Ngannou of Cameroon. The 10-round bout from Saudi Arabia can be seen live on pay-per-view including DAZN and Sky Box Office. Joshua last fought in December when he stopped southpaw Otto Wallin after five rounds while Ngannou dropped a highly-controversial 10-round split decision to Tyson Fury in his boxing debut in October.
**Watch live on DAZN this Friday. Your first month is free.
Joshua vs Ngannou Betting Odds
Here are the betting odds from online sportsbook BetOnline.ag (full review here).
- Francis Ngannou +350
- Anthony Joshua -500
My Pick
The 34-year-old Joshua is a former 2012 Olympic gold medalist who won the IBF Title in his 16th pro bout by stopping Charles Martin in the second round in 2016. He enters the fight with a record of 27-3 with 24 Ko’s. He ended his first 14 pro bouts and 16 of his first 18 within the first three rounds and 89 per cent of his wins have come by stoppage. He’s gone the distance in four of his last seven fights though and lost three of the past eight.
Joshua stopped Wladimir Klitschko in the 11th round in 2017 to win the WBA title and vacant IBO Crown. He added the WBO Belt with a unanimous decision win over Joseph Parker the next year but lost them all in 2019 when Andy Ruiz stopped him in the seventh round in Joshua’s first fight outside of the UK. He beat Ruiz by unanimous decision in their rematch though six months later to regain the titles. Joshua defended them once by stopping Kubrat Pulev in the ninth round a year later and lost them again when he ran into Oleksandr Usyk in September, 2021 and lost the rematch 11 months later by unanimous and split decisions respectively.
Joshua has also beaten Carlos Takam, Alexander Povetkin, Eric Molina, Dominic Breazeale, Dillian Whyte and Kevin Johnson along the way. His chin has always been a bit of a question mark and his power hasn’t been quite as evident lately. Klitschko had him down and apparently out in the sixth round in 2017, but Joshua came back and stopped him. However, he was dropped four times by Ruiz in their first fight and rocked a couple of times by Usyk. Joshua turned pro in 2013 and has 160 rounds under his belt since.
He’s a good-sized heavyweight by today’s standards as he stands 6-feet-6-inches tall with an 82-inch reach. Joshua is arguably a bit too muscle bound though, but possesses pretty good boxing skills even if he is a bit robotic. He has decent mobility and upper body movement as well as a stiff jab but usually tries to stay away from slugfests if possible these days while he attempts to box his opponents and use his size to advantage.
Joshua now tries to avoid going toe-to-toe and box, such as he did in the rematch with Ruiz, since he has the habit of losing his legs when getting nailed on the chin. Of course, he also has to stand his ground and fight back when tested though so this has proven to be a bit of a dilemma for him. He’ll try using his jab and boxing skills against Ngannou to hit him with something solid whenever he sees an opening but will definitely go after him if he feels he’s hurt.
As for the 37-year-old Ngannou, he now resides in Las Vegas, Nevada and enlisted the help of former world champion Mike Tyson to help prepare him for his first boxing match against Fury and did extremely well. Ngannou is better known as a professional mixed martial artist though who’s currently signed to the Professional Fighters League and is well known for competing as a heavyweight in the UFC, where he was the reigning Heavyweight Champion when he decided to leave in January of last year.
He’s listed as being 6-feet-4-inches tall with an 83-inch reach which sees him give up two inches in height to Joshua but has a minimal inch edge in reach. Ngannou is well known for his power as well as he turned pro in 2013 and his current MMA record reportedly stands at 17-3 with 12 of his wins coming by knockout, four by submission and one by decision. This means 70.5 per cent of his wins have come by knockout. He also decked Fury with a left hook in the third round of their bout.
Prediction…
I don’t think Ngannou can outbox Joshua. The way to beat him is simply to hurt him and stop him. Joshua doesn’t like to get hit so unless Ngannou lets his hands go with bad intent here he isn’t going to win this fight. It doesn’t matter how much power Ngannou possesses as it’s not going to do any good unless he throws leather and connects. Joshua’s chin has always been a bit of a question mark and he’s now fine tuned his other boxing skills because of it and sometimes employs a hit-and-run strategy. Ngannou blew his chance against Fury by letting him off the hook when he dropped him. He took his foot off the gas instead of going for the kill and hopefully he’s learned from that mistake. Anything can happen in a heavyweight fight if somebody connects on the button but that’s Ngannou’s only hope here. The most likely ending here will be a Joshua victory by points.
Joshua’s the better overall boxer.
Play: Joshua -500 @ BetOnline.ag
Check out my recent boxing betting picks to see my current form.
Anthony Joshua betting • Francis Ngannou betting