Francis Ngannou was knocked out cold by Anthony Joshua in their March 8 fight
Speaking a couple of weeks after his devastating loss to Anthony Joshua, Francis Ngannou has admitted he doesn’t remember anything after the first punch landed.
Ngannou went into the contest out in Saudia Arabia on March 8 with plenty of confidence. In his boxing debut just months before in October he had managed to sit Tyson Fury down on the canvas and push him hard over 10 rounds with many believing he was unlucky not to win on points.
However, when he stepped in with Anthony Joshua he had a rather rude awakening. He was knocked down hard with a straight right in the first round and then again in the second round before being conclusively put to sleep with a third straight right hand from Joshua towards the end of the second round.
Now he has been speaking to the MMA Hour and looking back on the night, “Emotionally I am good. The only thing that bothers me is that I was never in that fight. It was a weird day. I was tired. I was in the locker room for four and a half hours waiting. I was sweating but I was tired. Even when the fight started I wasn’t there.”
He then admitted that he doesn’t remember anything after being hit with that first big punch, “When I got hit, the first punch, I was more surprised that I was falling down from the punch than the punch himself.
“Sometimes in sparring you take a punch and think this guy hits hard. But this time the first punch. I was awake but I found myself down. I was like man, what’s going on, then I was being counted. Things were a little blurry. I don’t remember when I came back from the stop to go back for the second round. I wasn’t there any more.”
Anthony Joshua is now waiting in the wings for the winner of the undisputed fight between Fury and Oleksandr Usyk on May 18, while Ngannou reflects on where he goes next.