The bout is anticipated to happen in March in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The announcement got here simply two weeks after AJ defeated Otto Wallin. Ngannou, who in his first skilled boxing match produced a promising displaying in opposition to Tyson Fury in 2023 and even knocked him down, goals to safe his first victory when he takes on the previous heavyweight champion.

During a dialog on The MMA Hour, Ngannou - who many observers felt had bought the higher of fury - despatched Joshua a chilling message forward of their blockbuster bout. “I’ve heard that he doesn’t have a chin. I’m going to find out,” the 37-year-old mentioned.

“I watched the Wilder fight and then after that I watched the Joshua fight, and I was like, there’s an opportunity here. So I made a tweet first and then received a call.” After surviving an AJ onslaught within the Middle East, Wallin determined sufficient was sufficient and retired on his stool after spherical 5.

Following two devastating title battle defeats to Oleksandr Usyk, Joshua has now claimed three consecutive victories and has regained some momentum forward of his match with Ngannou. Commenting on AJ’s efficiency, the previous UFC heavyweight added: “He looked amazing. Respect to him, congratulations to him. He was doing his job properly, his speed there, everything. He was sharp, very sharp.

“But on the other hand, I think there wasn’t a response in front of him. I think I will have a better response in front of him that will put him not in such a comfortable position. Things will change. It’s going to be different. I will not just stay there and look at him. It’s going to be different. I’m going to throw some bombs out there for him to deal with. I think he’s going to be mindful of what he’s doing.”

The official press convention for his or her battle is about to happen on January 15, and by then his promoter Eddie Hearn expects his consumer to have a brand new coach. It is at present unclear whether or not Derrick James or Ben Davison will likely be in AJ’s nook for the Ngannou bout. James guided Joshua to victories over Jermaine Franklin and Robert Helenius whereas Davison was in his nook when he beat Wallin.

“He’s flown back to England, so he’s gonna make a decision pretty soon. There’s, what, eight weeks [from] Saturday until the fight?” Hearn mentioned on the MMA Hour. “He’ll talk to his team and see where’s best to train. Obviously, he had a great camp with Ben, and that decision was made really because of the lack of time [to prepare for] Otto Wallin.

“I think you might see him go out to Saudi a little earlier for this fight. Obviously, just three weeks before, you’ve got [Oleksandr] Usyk against [Tyson] Fury out there. So, that’s our ultimate aim: to fight the winner of that fight. I haven’t talked to him too much about the details of his camp, but I guess he’ll be putting it together this week.”