Francis Ngannou: I will be the one to take Joshua’s soul ​

Francis Ngannou has promised to take Anthony Joshua’s soul in their March 8 boxing superfight in Riyadh.

The French-Cameroonian fighter’s talk was spurred on by remarks made by the British fighter in an interview with DAZN on January 15:

“This fight is my everything: my soul, my spirit, my mind, my body. Right now I’m not thinking about any championship belts,” Joshua explained. “…. You have to take someone’s soul, you have to take their spirit. And I’m looking forward to the challenge for sure.”

Speaking recently on the High Performance podcast, Ngannou responded to a pre-fight promise of Joshua’s regarding a quote about breaking Ngannou’s spirit and taking his soul.

Ngannou believes the direct opposite will happen. “The Predator” responded to Joshua’s remarks in an interview on February 4:

“They say never say never. Nothing is impossible, right?” Ngannou told High Performance. “We don’t know the strength of Anthony Joshua… but we’re going to find out in two months. 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.”

The general agreement is that Joshua is expected to secure a clear victory in this upcoming bout. Ngannou faced overwhelming odds as an underdog against Tyson Fury in late 2023, and while the margins are slightly narrower this time, it hasn’t deterred pundits and boxing legends from cautioning “AJ” about the impending match.

Lennox Lewis, widely regarded as one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time, warned Joshua about the optics of facing Ngannou.

“If AJ beats Ngannou, which he should, does that elevate him to a shot at undisputed?” Lewis said in a Twitter thread in January. “Beating [Otto] wallin & Ngannou? There’s much better case for the winner of [Joseph Parker vs. Zhilei Zhang].”

“The Lion’s” words ring true, but Joshua has already alluded to the fact he isn’t chasing undisputed status anymore, “I’m done with all that,” Joshua told The Mirror.

So even though he came within a hair’s breadth of pulling off one of the greatest upsets in combat sports history, Ngannou is no longer dwelling on the judges’ call against Fury.

“Why? I mean, I won,” Ngannou said. “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 changes anything in my life? My family that I was telling you about, they were sitting in the first row watching that fight. The dream that I was carrying since I was a kid, I was that night living that dream. On top of the world, I was there. And for all the people that [have] been doubting me, I was there proving them wrong. For everybody that ever looked down at me, I was there proving them wrong. They were home watching me on their TV.

“I have won everything. You think because some judges make a decision? It’s not a court. The only decision that a judge can make to change my life is a court, if they sign me to go to jail. But I’m out here. In fact, because of that fight, from that fight I won this fight. I won everything. I won everything that night in that fight. I think I won everything from boxing, and the least that they could get back was to get that, ‘Oh, you son of a b****, you’re not taking everything from us.’ What would have happened if they had given me a decision? It makes boxing look really bad. They need to save face at some point. I understand it.”