Ben Davison Warns Anthony Joshua Ahead of Francis Ngannou Clash

On Friday, March 8, Anthony Joshua (27-3, 24 KOs) will face Francis Ngannou (0-1, 0 KOs) in the main event at “Knockout Chaos” at the Kingdom Arena, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The fight will be available on Sky Sports Box Office and DAZN PPV. As we edge closer to fight night, Joshua’s trainer Ben Davison has spoken to Sky Sports about the next fight for Anthony Joshua.

Ben Davison Warns Anthony Joshua About His Next Fight

Anthony Joshua vs. Francis Ngannou

Ahead of Joshua vs. Ngannou, we have heard predictions from Claressa Shields and British heavyweight Matty Harris. Davison has now spoken and warned his fighter, that he has to treat Ngannou as a world-class heavyweight, after his exploits in his close split-decision loss to Tyson Fury.

The Cameroonian ex-UFC star has never won a professional boxing match, but this did not stop him dropping Fury in their 10-round non-title bout. His physicality and power clearly shocked “The Gypsy King” in their encounter, and it seems Davison is determined to make sure AJ doesn’t make the same mistakes. “Treat him with the respect,” he told Sky Sports. “Let’s not lose the sight of it. He had a split-decision loss to Tyson. Straightaway that puts him up among people that have really struggled with Tyson.”

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Davison added: “He showed composure, he showed patience, which are all things which become a threat when you can punch like that.”

As this will only be his second professional fight, it’s hard for team Joshua to study too much of Ngannou, which is why Davison is clearly grateful for the Fury fight: “The 10-round fight against Tyson’s a big asset to us, I feel.”

Ngannou Progression

Despite the Fury fight being a valuable insight for team Joshua, Davison has warned they are prepared for more on March 8: “We don’t know. There might be other areas of his game that he looks to bring as well” 

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He added: “But we are prepared and have to prepare ourselves for what we think he’s capable of and what other areas of his game we think he might try to employ or tactics that they might try to employ against AJ. That’s all we can do.”