England’s Anthony Joshua scored a huge knockout victory as he flattened former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou in Riyadh on Friday night.
Former unified heavyweight champion Joshua was bidding to position himself for a shot at the undisputed heavyweight title, but needed to get past the dangerous Ngannou, whose punch power catapulted him to the top of the UFC and saw him drop WBC champion Tyson Fury on his professional boxing debut at Battle of the Baddest last year.
Following Ngannou’s remarkable success in his split-decision loss to Fury, some suggested that Joshua might represent a more winnable fight for the Cameroonian puncher. But, despite much of the pre-fight narrative discussing how Ngannou’s power could be the deciding factor, it turned out to be Joshua’s heavy hands that ultimately decided the outcome.
In a relatively steady opening round, Ngannou looked more at home and more confident than he did in the early stages against Fury, and “The Predator” scored with some smartly-timed lead left hooks, while Joshua popped out some sharp jabs to set his range.
A fascinating clash looked to be in prospect, but when Ngannou switched to southpaw in the closing moments of the round, Joshua struck.
A strong straight right stunned Ngannou and sent the mixed martial arts star to the canvas. Smartly, he stayed on one knee until the count of eight before returning to his feet. He wasn’t on unsteady legs, but his face showed a degree of shock.
Joshua kept controlled pressure on Ngannou early in Round 2 and dropped him again. This time, the Cameroonian looked in trouble and, despite waiting for the count of eight again, he looked like a sitting duck.
Joshua loaded up, walked across the ring and detonated a huge overhand right that knocked out Ngannou for one of the biggest heavyweight knockouts we’ve seen in a long time.
Joshua’s win exposed Ngannou’s defensive weakness from the southpaw stance, then showed his killer instinct by closing the show in devastating fashion.
It now means that “AJ” is in line to face the winner of the upcoming undisputed heavyweight title bout between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk, who meet in Riyadh on May 18.
Parker outworks Zhang, claims interim crown
The night’s co-main event saw Joseph Parker get off the canvas twice to capture the interim WBO heavyweight title with a majority decision victory over China’s Zhilei Zhang.
Zhang’s punch power put Parker on the seat of his pants twice during the 12-round title bout. But despite the advantage of two 10-8 rounds in Round 3 and Round 8, “Big Bang” didn’t offer a high enough work rate to outpoint Parker over the 12-round duration.
It meant that Parker dethroned Zhang for the interim crown, but their rivalry is far from over, with Parker stating after the fight that there was a rematch clause, and that the pair would meet again later this year.
Ball denied by controversial scorecards
There was controversy in the WBC featherweight title bout between Rey Vargas and Nick Ball after the judges returned a split draw at the end of the 12-round title clash.
Vargas used his range to good effect early as he appeared to race into an early lead on the scorecards. But Ball’s tenacity and relentlessness saw him take charge of the fight in the second half of the contest, dropping the champion twice in the process.
Despite the two knockdowns, the judges all saw the fight very differently, with Massimo Barrovecchio scoring it 114-112 to Vargas and Jun Bae Lim seeing it 116-110 to Ball. The third judge, Rey Danseco, scored the fight even at 113-113 to spark celebrations from the Mexican corner as Vargas held on to his title by the slimmest of margins.
I scored the fight 114-112, with Rounds 1-6 to Vargas, and Rounds 7-12 to Ball, with the two knockdowns giving the Englishman the two-point win on my card.
The night’s other world title fight saw Uzbekistan’s Israil Madrimov stop Magomed Kurbanov in the fifth round to hand the Russian the first defeat of his 26-fight career and capture the WBA super welterweight crown.
Knockout Chaos: Official results
MAIN CARD
- Anthony Joshua def. Francis Ngannou via knockout – Round 2, 2:38
- Joseph Parker def. Zhilei Zhang via majority decision (113-113, 114-112, 115-111) – for WBO interim heavyweight title
- Rey Vargas vs. Nick Ball scored a split draw (114-112 Vargas, 116-110 Ball, 113-113) – for WBC featherweight title
- Israil Madrimov def. Magomed Kurbanov via TKO – Round 5
- Mark Chamberlain def. Gavin Gwynne via TKO – Round 4, 2:46
- Justis Huni def. Kevin Lerena via unanimous decision
PRELIMINARY CARD
- Louis Greene def. Jack McGann via knockout – Round 1. 1:29
- Roman Fury def. Martin Svarc via unanimous decision
- Ziyad Al Maayouf def. Christian Lopez Flores via unanimous decision
- Andrii Novytskyi def. Juan Torres via TKO – Round 3, 2:42
