Nigerian-born British heavyweight boxer, Anthony Joshua has downplayed the power of Francis Ngannou’s punch ahead of their bout on March 8.

Before his proposed bout with Anthony Joshua, Ngannou, who gained international recognition as a UFC fighter, made his heavyweight boxing debut against British fighter, Tyson Fury last year.

To the dismay of many boxing enthusiasts, Ngannou punched Fury down in the 5th round but the British boxer was able to bounce back to win the bout via a split decision.

After the bout, Ngannou gained extraordinary attention in the world of boxing, which landed him a bout with a two-time heavyweight world champion, Anthony Joshua.

Ahead of the bout, which is two weeks away, Anthony Joshua and Francis Ngannou attended the DAZN face-off in which the Cameroonian boxer made it clear that AJ wouldn’t be able to recover from the punch that landed Fury to the ground.

Though that was the seventh time in 16 years that Fury was dropped by an opponent – once by Neven Paikich, Steve Cunningham, and four times by Deontay Wilder – Ngannou downplayed Joshua’s ability to bounce back from the kind of knockdown Fury suffered in his hands.

He said, “Yeah, I doubt that [whether Joshua would get up from the same punch Tyson got]. Tyson showed that he is very resilient, I saw him come back from a knockdown that you wouldn’t believe [against Deontay Wilder].

“He is probably one of the most resilient people out there and this is not a disrespect to AJ, but I don’t believe that AJ would have taken what Tyson took.”

In his quick response, Joshua used the opportunity to mock Fury’s high tendency to be knocked down during a boxing bout.

“Who hasn’t knocked Tyson down? So many people have knocked Tyson down”, Joshua said.

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