Francis Ngannou has admitted that he has no memory of getting up from his stool for the second round of the fight, noting that he only remembered the first punch that hit him from Anthony Joshua.
Ngannou made this admission in his first interview that surfaced online since being knocked out by Anthony Joshua in the second round of their heavyweight showdown earlier this month.
He said, “First of all, the first punch that hit me is basically he only punch that I remember. The second thing is that I wasn’t there and I never remember being there for the second time.
” But the first one wasn’t that hard. It wasn’t like the second one. It was really am I slipping? Or am I falling from the punch? Oh I’m falling from the punch. I wasn’t surprised.
When asked if he watched the whole fight again, Ngannou said, “I watched the fight. I dot usually watch my fight. I never watched Fury fight. Sometimes I just see the highlights because I used to record my fights in my mind and I know every step of the fight. I don’t really enjoy watching my fight. But this one I watched.
The former UFC champion entered his contest with the Londoner off the back of a strong performance against Tyson Fury in his professional boxing debut, but was dealt with by Joshua in clinical fashion at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Ngannou was sent to the canvas by his vastly more experienced opponent in the first round after being caught flush by a stiff straight right – and ‘The Predator’ never recovered from that setback.
While the Cameroonian slugger recovered to finish the round, he never managed to trouble Joshua before being knocked down again and then finished with a devastating right hand at 2:38 of the second stanza.
“My memory and my vision kept going. I don’t remember when I came back from the stool to go to the second round. From the stool, in between rounds, I wasn’t there anymore. Some days are just not your day and you can’t explain what happened. It was quite weird.
Ngannou, however, said he has no regrets about the fight, maintaining that he had done all he could to prepare for the former two-time world champion.
The Octagon veteran even defended his decision to turn southpaw during the fight – a switch that left him more susceptible to Joshua’s trademark right hand.
“I do not have any regrets. Now that I lost the fight, we can say anything that I’ve done wrong. We worked on everything, and everything was OK. This was all my choice [going southpaw]. Even in southpaw, my defense is more sharp than orthodox. In the southpaw, to take a hit from the right back hand, this is something that in sparring never happened, and I’ve been there so many times practicing. With the same southpaw, I think we basically won the fight against Tyson Fury.
Ngannou then said he still intends to return to boxing in the near future – a statement that may worry some of his fans given his admission that he cannot remember the closing minutes of his bout with Joshua.
The PFL-contracted fighter had been expected to return to the cage to meet Renan Ferreira in his next combat sports assigned.
However, in a recent clip posted to his YouTube channel, Ngannou suggested that a “third boxing match” could happen before he returns to mixed martial arts.
