Francis Ngannou‘s boxing dreams have come tumbling down after he was knocked out by Anthony Joshua in his second professional boxing match earlier this month. ‘The Predator’, who had stunned heavyweight champion Tyson Fury on boxing debut last year was made to look an amateur by the former unified heavyweight champion.

If he had won, the PFL fighter would have been the official number one title contender for the boxing heavyweight unified title. However, the loss has set him back significantly although he still has a potential rematch with Tyson Fury as ‘The Gypsy King’ would be eager to rectify their last fight, which he won by a one-point decision. However, it seems Ngannou is having trouble accepting his humiliating loss to Joshua and is being criticized by fans for allegedly making excuses for the loss, as he did on Ariel Helwani‘s ‘MMA Hour’ show.

Francis Ngannou claims ‘tricks’ led to loss against Joshua

Speaking about the Joshua fight, the Cameroonian claimed that one of the reasons he lost to Joshua was that he was brought to the venue many hours before Joshua and had to wait four hours in the locker room, which, according to him hurt his performance.

“Listen I think we both fight at 3 a.m… what I think something that’s happened is that they get me to the arena very early. Like my pickup time was 10:30 to go the arena and when we get to the arena they tell us we are scheduled around 1:45 a.m. And then around 1, they come to the locker… and Joshua hasn’t arrived. So I’m like we’re fighting around the same time,” he said.

Bizarrely, the former UFC champion even claimed that he was made to visit places during fight week and made to wait on purpose as a way to tire him out. “Even during the week we were going to paces and have to wait and Dewey was complaining ‘They do this kind of trick to get you tired’… I didnt know how important that was until fight week,” Ngannou added.

All that said, Ngannou is a mixed martial artist first and the cage maybe calling him home.

Ngannou’s MMA return doubtful despite boxing loss

After PFL heavyweight champion Renan Ferreira beat Bellator heavyweight champion Ryan Bader at the inaugural PFL vs. Bellator card in February, it seems likely he will be Francis Ngannou’s next mixed martial arts opponent.

Ngannou had expressed interest in fighting the winner of Fereirra-Bader prior to the bout. However, Ngannou, who was present cage-side when Ferreira nocked Bader out in the first round, curiously chose to walk out of the arena even as the heavyweight champion was calling him out.

But, it seems Ngannou may be planning to keep his boxing career on hold as feels he must reinstate his honor and reputation, which has been badly damaged after his fight with Fury.“What’s next for me? Maybe a third boxing match. I feel like boxing owes me something now. I have to regain what boxing took from me. I think my ego will not let me step back and let this go,” he said. What do you think about Ngannou’s statement?

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