Anthony Joshua has delivered one of the feature knockout reels of his profession to overcome Francis Ngannou inside two rounds in Saudi Arabia.
With Ngannou, the previous UFC heavyweight champion, having dropped Tyson Fury on his expert boxing debut in October, it was felt that there was sufficient peril in this battle where he could agitate the double cross heavyweight boxing champion.
Notwithstanding, as the clock ticked past 3.30am in Riyadh, Anthony Joshua made a joke of a portion of the pre-battle forecasts, mercilessly sending Ngannou to the material on three events inside the initial six minutes.
Ngannou had at first begun the challenge looking more honed than he did against Fury, again boxing with balance and looking for an opening as Joshua stayed patient.
An unexpected change to southpaw made a huge difference for Ngannou. Joshua put him down with a tremendous right hand with the Cameroonian closure the round clearly shocked from being felled with such ease.
As round two advanced, the composing felt on the wall, yet few would have anticipated Ngannou being taken out so devastatingly towards the back finish of the round.
Shockingly, Ngannou boldly beat the count in the wake of stirring things up around town from one more immense right hand, however he was unconscious before he hit the floor with the third – the 37-year-old an easy target for Joshua to stack up and explode ostensibly the greatest knockout of his career.
Joshua showed class and scarcely celebrated as Ngannou got quick medical consideration, with it requiring a few minutes before he sat up and at last got to his feet, however the MMA fighter was later ready to impart a hug to Joshua.
With Fury and Usyk risking their world titles in an undisputed battle on May 18, Joshua should now stand by to see whether he will battle one of those, or head into a conflict with Filip Hrgovic for the destined to be empty IBF belt in the mid-year.
On the undercard, Joseph Parker two times got off the floor to beat Zhilei Zhang by split choice to come out on top for the break WBO heavyweight championship.
Notwithstanding, Nick Ball was disputably denied triumph in his WBC featherweight title battle against Rey Vargas, the session finishing in a split-draw in spite of the Liverpudlian seeming to have done what’s necessary for the success politeness of two knockdowns.
