Dillian Whyte on Francis Ngannou versus Anthony Joshua: ‘I think the Fury fight gave him false confidence’

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Former WBC interim heavyweight titleholder Dillian Whyte said that Francis Ngannou had false confidence before fighting Anthony Joshua.

Ngannou’s opponent during his professional boxing debut was WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury. The bout took place last year and nearly ended in Fury’s defeat.

This must have encouraged Ngannou whom Joshua knocked out in the second round of their own bout this year.

Whyte echoed what some said about ex-UFC heavyweight juggernaut Ngannou while speaking to Sky Sports.

‘I think that [Fury] fight gave him false confidence to the point where, when he was getting hammered with big punches, he stayed in the pocket and he wasn’t trying to move his head or hold or anything.

‘He went down, stood up in the same place. Didn’t move his head, went down, stood up in the same place and basically waited for the third right hand.

‘AJ is a puncher and you don’t just stand up in front of someone like AJ with your hands basically down and then switching stances mid-fight against a right-handed puncher. Why did he go southpaw? It didn’t make any sense.

‘I just knew that AJ’s experience and his power would be too much. I thought Francis would be a little bit better, to be honest, but Francis… he’s doing boxing, but it’s not recognised boxing training so he hasn’t covered the basics.

‘You are talking about a world champion fighting someone at “Southern Area” level. If that’s “Southern Area” level? Because some of the heavyweights at “Southern Area” would beat him [Ngannou].’

Clearly, Whyte might have expected the African to emerge the winner after imagining that Ngannou must have learnt few things from fighting Fury.

Joshua must have been happy when the novice changed to southpaw.