Francis Ngannou had a dream pro boxing debut against Tyson Fury last year. Losing a one-point split decision to the heavyweight champion convinced many that the Cameroonian had a real future in boxing. However, things changed dramatically in his second boxing match against Anthony Joshua, which may have spelled doom to the prospect of anyone taking him seriously as a boxer going forward.

‘AJ’, of course, knocked out the former UFC champ in the second round of their March 2024 clash, making him look like an amateur. But Ngannou has maintained since the loss that there were dirty tactics at play from Joshua’s team, which led to his loss, which he repeated most recently to Joe Rogan.

Francis Ngannou tells Joe Rogan how time-wasting tactics led to disastrous performance

Speaking to Rogan on episode #160 of the JRE MMA Show, Ngannou pointed out that while he didn’t have many media commitments to promote the Fury fight, things were markedly different for the Joshua clash. However, he felt that every time they had a media engagement to promote the fight, he was set up by Joshua’s team.

“And then every time that we’re going to do something in the five week, whether it’s media, they’re going to pick me up and then I get there have to wait like one hour and a half before he arrives,” he said.

His coach, Dewey Cooper caught up to these tactics and told Ngannou that ” this how they do to get fighters tired” in the fight game. Ngannou, however, wasn’t convinced and told Cooper to not worry about it, not realizing the cumulative effects all of these events would have on his performance against the former boxing champion.

This wasn’t all, however, and the final nail in the coffin, according to ‘The Predator’ came on the fateful night of the fight. It all started with the supposed time at which the fight was supposed to start. Originally, Ngannou claimed, his main event bout against ‘AJ’ was set for quarter to eleven, for which he reached the arena around 10:30.

But, upon reaching the venue, he was informed that the fight had been moved up three hours, leaving Ngannou no choice but to sit and wait. What really rubbed him the wrong way and sent the alarm bell ringing was seeing Joshua come to the venue at 1:30, making his suspect he was deliberately called early to the Arena to tire him out before the fight.

“Pick up time is 10:30 from the hotel … We go to the supposedly fight night. We get to the arena, 10:45, there’s a producer coming to the locker room saying ‘Oh guys, we are running late on the broadcast now we’re going to go around 1:45’. It was around 1:30 that Anthony Joshua arrived. I’m like so we supposed to fight at 1:45 he’s arriving at 1:30. What does that mean?” Ngannou added. But Joshua’s team has been mocking the Cameroonian for his claims.

‘AJ’s manager dismisses Ngannou’s allegations

However, Anthony Joshua’s manager and ‘Matchroom Boxing’ promotions boss, Eddie Hearn, has ridiculed Ngannou’s claims. The Englishman had taken to X/Twitter after the former UFC champ made these allegations previously, hilariously chalking the former UFC champ’s claims to not having recovered from the knockout.

“I’m not sure he has come round yet,” Hearn wrote. However, this clearly hasn’t stopped Ngannou from repeating these claims every chance he gets, including on Rogan’s podcast, which is probably the biggest platform in the English-speaking world.

However, not only is Ngannou angry at Joshua’s team for their supposed shenanigans, but is also determined to continue boxing since he feels the sport “owes something” to him after his last fight and how it played out. But, when or against whom his next boxing match will be remains unknown at the moment. Who do you think Francis Ngannou should fight next?