Hearn: Joshua Dominated Wallin, I'm Confident He'll Repeat the Performance Against Ngannou





Promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom encountered no hurdles in persuading his star boxer, former two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, to step into the ring against MMA veteran Francis Ngannou.

Initially, Joshua was set to face former WBC champion Deontay Wilder in a highly anticipated bout. However, this plan hit a snag when Joseph Parker scored an unexpected twelve-round unanimous decision victory over Wilder on December 23 in Saudi Arabia. Joshua, appearing in the main event of that card, halted Otto Wallin.

Hearn shared insights, stating, “Look, we were due to announce the Deontay Wilder fight in the ring that night. Both guys had signed a contract to announce the fight, and [Turki Alalshikh] was very excited. Obviously, it was one of the most highly anticipated fights that could be made this fall. It’s four years in the making, everyone was really excited. Obviously, Deontay Wilder lost. So from that moment, the cogs are turning in [Alalshikh’s] mind, ‘What are we going to do on March 8th, March 9th?’

As soon as the fights finished, he’s like, ‘Right, let’s talk.’ And we had a meeting, and I said to him, ‘I think [Francis Ngannou] is the biggest fight out there.’ I said it to you when I came on [The MMA Hour after Fury vs. Ngannou] — we’re talking about two giants in Anthony Joshua and Francis Ngannou, two men who look like they are carved out of stone, two devastating punchers. And I’ve always felt like it was the biggest fight out there. I told [Alalshikh] that and he felt the same, and these people move very quickly.”

Scheduled to unfold on March 8 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Joshua vs. Ngannou has Hearn anticipating a commanding victory by his fighter.

“Honestly, previous to the Fury fight, it wasn’t a fight that [Joshua] was interested in,” remarked Hearn. “Obviously, we just boxed a guy in Otto Wallin that really gave Fury a really tough time, cut him, think he had 48 stitches — the fight should’ve been stopped, Otto Wallin should’ve won that fight. But it is what it is, and AJ went out and it was a mismatch. He demolished [Wallin]. And I believe we’re going to do the same here. So that performance over Tyson Fury, of course, that was really the point, the moment that made this fight credible.”

- Vladimir Krull 

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