Francis Ngannou still believes he won that boxing match against Tyson Fury in October 2023. At least, in every way that really matters.
Ngannou was edged by Fury in a razor-thin split decision (watch the highlights here). No one expected “The Predator” to hang with Fury, so to walk away with many calling it a robbery was a massive success. That’s how Francis sees it. He was paid millions of dollars for the fight, and is now set to box Anthony Joshua for millions more on March 8th in Saudi Arabia.
“I mean, I won,” he said on the High Performance podcast. “Look at me now, look at my life, look at where I was when you think I lost. You think because some foolish judges make some decision, that changed anything in my life?”
“My family, they were sitting in the first row watching that fight. The dream that I was carrying since I was a kid, that night I was living that dream on top of the world. I was there. And for all the people that had been doubting me, I was there proving them wrong. For everybody that ever looked me looked down to me. I was there proving them wrong. They were home watching me on the TV. I’ve won everything.”
“You think because some judges make a decision — it’s not a court,” Ngannou continued. “The only decision that a judge can make to change my life is a court, if they signed me to go to jail. But I’m out here. In fact, because of that fight, from that fight, I won this [Joshua] fight. I won everything. I won everything that night in that fight, I think I won everything from boxing.”
“And the last thing that they could get back was to go, ‘Oh, you son of a b—h, you are not taking everything from us.’ You know what what would have happened if they gave me a decision? It makes boxing look really bad. Like, they need to save their face at some point. I understand that.”
Ngannou and his team plan to shock the world again when he faces Anthony Joshua in Riyadh. “AJ” recently said he’d take Ngannou’s soul in their fight.
“Nothing is impossible, right?” Ngannou admitted regarding the threat. “We don’t know the strength of Anthony Joshua. But even though I don’t believe he has that strength, but we’re going to find out. We’re going to find out, and I think the reverse is going to happen.”
“I’m going to be the one taking his soul.”
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
