Francis Ngannou is picking up his training camp and moving it to Saudi Arabia.
The former UFC heavyweight champion is set to face Anthony Joshua on March 8th in Riyadh. That’s the same place he nearly defeated Tyson Fury in a boxing bout no one expected him to stand a chance in. “The Predator” silenced the doubters, knocking Fury down in the third round and losing a split decision by one controversial point.
Ngannou did all that with the same team that took him to championship gold in MMA: XTreme Couture head coach Eric Nicksick and striking coach Dewey Cooper. For his fight with Joshua, there will be a slight change: Ngannou and Cooper will head to Saudi Arabia, where they’ll set up their training camp. Nicksick will arrive in mid-February.
The reason for the move from Las Vegas to Saudi Arabia? According to ESPN, Ngannou didn’t want to lose training time due to travel. He’s set to appear at a press conference with Anthony Joshua in London on Monday, January 15th. After that he’ll head straight to the Middle East, where he’ll remain until the fight goes down on March 8th.
No more travel, no more acclimatization to time zones or weather. And it doesn’t hurt that Francis Ngannou is being treated like a proper superstar by Saudi royalty. It’s a nice change after years of nickel and diming from UFC brass.
Anthony Joshua is coming off a big win over Otto Wallin in December. That was originally supposed to set up a big bout against Deontay Wilder, but Wilder dropped a lackluster decision to Joseph Parker on the same night. That opened the door for Ngannou, who is still riding high off his October performance against Fury.
Can “The Predator” continue to shock the boxing world? Let us know what you think of Francis’ chances in the comments below, Maniacs.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
