Anthony Joshua vs Francis Ngannou, billed as ''Knockout Chaos,'' was a

heavyweight Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling. Boxing Professional Boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 3 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation, the Wo ...

professional boxing Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse bid, purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regula ...

match contested between 2-time former unified heavyweight champion

Anthony Joshua Anthony Oluwafemi Olaseni Joshua (born 15 October 1989) is an English professional boxer. He is a two-time former unified world heavyweight champion, having held the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO titles twice between 2016 and 2021. At r ...

and former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou.

Background

Following his impressive stoppage of Otto Wallin in December 2023, Anthony Joshua was linked with IBF number one ranked

Filip Hrgović Filip Hrgović (born 4 June 1992) is a Croatian professional boxer who has held the WBC International title in 2018 and the IBF International title in 2020. As an amateur he won the gold medal at the 2015 European Amateur Boxing Championships a ...

WBO The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing bouts. It is recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) as one of the four major world championship groups, alongside the World Boxing ...

"interim" titleholder

Zhilei Zhang Zhilei Zhang (; born May 2, 1983) is a Chinese professional boxer who has held the WBO interim heavyweight title since April 2023. As an amateur, he won bronze medals at the 2007 and 2009 World Championships, and a silver medal at the 2008 Olym ...

. However in January 2024 it was confirmed that he would face former UFC champion Francis Ngannou, who in his only previous boxing bout scored a knockdown against

WBC WBC may stand for: Business *Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, a former large India broadcaster now folded into CBS *Westpac (New Delhi Exchange code: WBC), a multinational Financial services company *Wholesale Broadband Connect, BT Wholesale's ...

and Lineal champion Tyson Fury before losing a somewhat controversial

split decision A split decision (SD) is a winning criterion in boxing, most commonly in full-contact combat sports, in which two of the three judges score one particular competitor as the winner, while the third judge scores for the other competitor. A split dec ...

The fights

Undercard

Before the main event,

Israil Madrimov Israil Madrimov is a professional boxer from Uzbekistan. As an amateur he won a silver medal in the welterweight division at the 2014 Asian Games and gold in the middleweight division at the 2018 edition. Amateur career At the international lev ...

stopped Magomed Kurbanov to win the vacant WBA Super Welterweight belt. This was followed by Nick Ball challenging

featherweight champion Rey Vargas. After twice flooring the champion (once appearing to push him before handing a left hook) the bout was ruled a draw with scores of 116–110 for Ball, 114–112 for Vargas and 113–113.

Zhang vs. Parker

In the chief support WBO "Interim" titleholder

faced former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker (WBO: 2nd WBC / WBA: 3rd). Parker was dropped twice in the bout, once in 3rd with a left hand and once in the 8th with a left-right hook combination. However Zhang's lack of output compared to Parker cost him, as two of the judges scored it for Parker 114–112 & 115–111, with the third having it 113–113.

Main Event

Joshua dominated the bout, knocking down Ngannou, who switched to

southpaw Southpaw is another name for a left-handed individual, particularly in sports. Southpaw may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''The Southpaw'', a 1952 novel by Mark Harris * Southpaw (comics), a fictional character in the Marvel comic ''Sh ...

, with a straight right hand (a punch often dubbed as the 'southpaw killer') down the pipe in the 1st round. Ngannou beat the count and reverted to orthodox but was floored again in the 2nd. He again rose to his feet, but Joshua finished the fight with another right hand that left Ngannou flat on the canvas for several minutes afterwards.

Aftermath

Speaking in the ring after the bout promoter Eddie Hearn said "You’re looking at the number one heavyweight in the world, unquestionably. On this form, there is no man in the world that can beat him in the heavyweight division." before stating his desire for Joshua to face the winner of the planned May 18 bout between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk. Ngannou later confirmed that he will continue boxing despite the loss. However he dropped out of the top twenty rankings of WBC due to his second straight loss.

Fight card

References

{{Anthony Joshua 2024 in boxing 2024 in Saudi Arabian sport March 2024 sports events in Saudi Arabia Boxing matches in Saudi Arabia Ngannou Boxing on DAZN Boxing on Sky Sports Sports competitions in Riyadh Crossover boxing matches