Francis Ngannou said he told his coach Eric Nicksick that “something’s wrong” just hours before he was due to fight Anthony Joshua in a boxing-rules contest at Kingdom Arena, Riyadh, in March.
The fight was Ngannou’s second foray into boxing, after rapidly rising to the very top of the UFC’s heavyweight division as a champion with proven punching power at the highest echelons of MMA. That power appeared like it transferred to the boxing ring as he floored Tyson Fury with a punch in his boxing debut, last year. But, against Joshua, Ngannou suffered a second-round knockout loss to the dominant British boxer.
On The Joe Rogan Experience, Ngannou had more to say about the defeat — specifically what he said went on in the build-up to the bout on the night of the fight.
Ngannou told Joe Rogan that media obligations, an ever-changing schedule, and delays once he was already at the venue and ready to fight, seemingly exhausted him before the opening bell had even been rung.
“We get into fight week, and every time we’re going to do media, they’re going to pick me up and then I get there and have to wait an hour and a half before [any of the media] arrives. On the third day of fight week, [coach] Dewey Cooper started to get very mad, ‘This is what they do to get fighters tired’!”
There was also confusion regarding schedules, Ngannou said.
“Fight day, we receive an email. Pickup time: 10:30 from the hotel. And when they say 10:30, by 10:20 there’s a car at your door waiting. The supposed fight time is between midnight to 1:00. We get to the arena at 10:45. A producer comes into the locker room, says, ‘Oh, guy, we are running late on the broadcast. Now we’re gonna go around 1:45.’ I’m like okay, 1:45. It’s 10:45. Three hours.”
There was also confusion regarding schedules, Ngannou said.
“Fight day, we receive an email. Pickup time: 10:30 from the hotel. And when they say 10:30, by 10:20 there’s a car at your door waiting. The supposed fight time is between midnight to 1:00. We get to the arena at 10:45. A producer comes into the locker room, says, ‘Oh, guy, we are running late on the broadcast. Now we’re gonna go around 1:45.’ I’m like okay, 1:45. It’s 10:45. Three hours.”
“I got to the point that I was so tired, I was in the locker room hitting mitts, then sitting down, falling asleep. Then I tell [coach] Eric Nicksick there’s something wrong. I’m asleep. I feel like I wanna sleep. Like, I’m sweating. But we just keep going.”
Ngannou doesn’t blame Joshua specificially but instead appears to point the finger at event organizers.
Though it is unclear if there is a large appetite to see Ngannou fight for a third time in boxing, after Joshua beat him so resoundingly earlier this year, he said to Rogan in a separate part of the podcast that he will return to MMA — specifically PFL MMA — for a fist-fight with 6-foot-8 brute Renan Ferreira. The fight, he said, would take place in October.
