Joshua speaks on not declining challenges ahead of Ngannou fixture

Ahead of his March fixture, former heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua, has made it clear that he has never been the type to back out from a challenge. The British boxer was addressing issues about certain fights in his career that did not hold as planned or scheduled. 

The most recent was a fight against Deontay Wilder. The two were supposed to meet this year on an agreement that they both won their fights in December. Wilder, unfortunately, lost to his opponent, leading to a cancellation of the planned fight. 

Speaking on that, Joshua expressed his disappointment over that situation as it was a fight he looked forward to: “It’s a fight that fans want to see. I’m not saying it’s completely written off. It’s a fight where everything was signed and sealed. It just needed both of us to deliver. And he didn’t meet his end of the bargain.”

Joshua went on to say that the fact that he had agreed for fights to happen, even though for some reason they did not, is proof of his willingness to take on anybody: “You know what it proved to me? I’ve signed to fight Fury, I’ve signed to fight Wilder, I’ve signed to fight a lot of people. I just do good business. I’m a good prizefighter; I don’t duck a challenge.”

And he may be right. In the past few years, we have seen Joshua agree to fight anyone who has come out to challenge him, even losing his three belts in the process. Even though he may not have won the belts back, he is still not scared to enter the ring with anyone, and on March 8, he will add another challenge to his completed list when he takes on MMA’s finest, Francis Ngannou.

The fact that The Predator has only had one boxing match that ended in a controversial loss is not enough for Joshua to write him off, as he has revealed that he always overestimates his opponents so he won’t be caught unawares.

Seeing how Ngannou fared against Fury, underestimating him is the last thing any boxer would want to do, and defeating him would see Joshua regain a bit of his lost reputation as he waits for the possibility of another shot at a title fight, if ever.

Leon Osamor