There was only one thing Anthony Joshua 28-4 (25) had on his mind after walking through Francis Ngannou 0-2 in two rounds at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Friday night.
Getting back in the gym.
The former two-time unified heavyweight champion had no trouble with the former UFC heavyweight champion, who he dropped once in the first round and twice in the second to force the stoppage while barely breaking a sweat.
The 34-year-old Brit has now boxed four times in the past 12 months, winning each time. He is of the firm belief that activity has been critical to hitting this purple patch of form at this stage of his career.
“The best thing is I can get back to the gym and I can build on another solid training camp and I can get back in the ring and do another job, that’s what I’m happy about,” said Joshua after the fight.
“We get in there, we give our best, thanks to my coach [Ben Davison] as well, these guys, they put in a lot of time, they push me in the gym, shout out to all my sparring partners as well, thanks to my team and thank you to Francis Ngannou for taking part and making boxing great again.”
Davison, who was training Joshua for just the second time, says it is a group effort that has lead to their success.
“Yes, collectively as a team, we came up with that,” Davison said to iFL TV of the plan to attack Cameroon’s Ngannou, 37, early in the contest.
“Not disrespecting Ngannou, but everyone was going on about how good his chin was. We were not so sure about that.
“He had never been hit by anyone like AJ, who was going to set up his punches like he does – which he did, and that’s how it happened.”
The first knockdown in the bout occurred when Ngannou switched from his natural orthodox stance to southpaw.
“He is not a natural southpaw, but he switched it up to southpaw,” Davison said. “We told AJ before the fight to drop a right hand to the body and we were confident that Ngannou was going to try and parry that type of shot. He did try that, AJ sold it and switched it up, and that was the first knockdown.”
Joshua seems to have found a new lease on his career after pairing up with Davison, who previously trained his rival Tyson Fury 34-0-1 (24). But Davison has downplayed him impact on the former WBA, WBO, IBF and Ring Magazine champion, saying all the success comes down to Joshua himself.
“It has always been all AJ,” Davison said. “We did not have a magic wand or anything; I just helped him select the right tools for the job.”
