Francis Ngannou's boxing coach describes Anthony Joshua fight as 'fire vs. fire'
Editor’s note: This article was originally published at MMAJunkie.com.
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Dewey Cooper, Francis Ngannou b’soxing coach, sees similarities in Ngannou and Anthony Joshua’s approaches.
Ngannou (0-1) is scheduled to take on Joshua (27-3, 24 KOs) in a 10-round boxing match March 8 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Cooper thinks Joshua possesses the same kind of one-punch knockout power as Ngannou, which makes it an exciting fight.
“I’m well-versed when it comes to Anthony Joshua,” Cooper said on Morning Kombat. “The one thing that we have to look out for – there are several things, but if there were only one, it would be that powerful right hand, of course.
“He throws it to the body just to set up that head shot. He has a lot of power. He can put a guy’s lights out with one punch, so it’s going to be a hell of a fight.”
Ngannou impressed in his boxing debut when he pushed champion Tyson Fury to the brink in a close decision loss. Cooper explained how the matchup against Fury differs from the one against Joshua.
“He’s a very good fighter, fundamentally sound, strong, big, athletic, good footwork when he wants to,” Cooper said of Joshua. “He’s going to be a real challenge because the Tyson Fury fight was about skill.
“It was about being cerebral because Tyson has so many different styles. He fights in three, four different styles. This fight is mano-a-mano, fire vs. fire. Tyson Fury fight was water vs. fire.
“Tyson was water. He can drown you. He can splash on you. He can crash on you. He can just wear you down, all these different things. Joshua brings the same tools that Francis brings. Of course Joshua’s pedigree is very high. He’s an Olympic gold medalist for crying out loud.
“At the end of the day, he’s going to try and bring the pressure, be on the front foot with that long jab that he throws well, and land his big right hand. Guess what? ‘The Predator’ Francis Ngannou is going to be doing the same thing. So, it’s going to be a cosmetically pleasing fight.
“It’s going to come down to one thing, who lands that money shot first, who has the bigger heart, who has more test of fortitude to go through dark areas and continue fighting with passion and intent, and I feel that’s where we’re going to persevere.
“Francis Ngannou is going to beat him because he’s just going to be stronger than him in all aspects.”