{"id":3867,"date":"2024-07-25T00:35:23","date_gmt":"2024-07-24T23:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/?p=3867"},"modified":"2024-07-25T16:42:55","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T15:42:55","slug":"francis-ngannou-reflects-on-the-devastating-knockout-by-anthony-joshua-it-wasnt-the-punch-that-knocked-me-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/francis-ngannou-reflects-on-the-devastating-knockout-by-anthony-joshua-it-wasnt-the-punch-that-knocked-me-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Francis Ngannou Reflects on the Devastating Knockout by Anthony Joshua: &#8220;It Wasn&#8217;t the Punch That Knocked Me Down&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In March, the boxing ring witnessed an electrifying clash between Francis Ngannou and Anthony Joshua, which ended in a dramatic defeat for Ngannou. The knockout punch delivered to the Cameroonian was particularly shocking, sparking widespread debate about the pivotal moment.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Before his fight with Joshua, Ngannou had made a strong impression with his performance against Tyson Fury, even though he lost by decision. However, his bout with &#8220;AJ&#8221; did not go as well. The British fighter took Ngannou seriously and quickly secured a decisive victory with a knockout in the second round.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In a recent interview on the JRE MMA Show hosted by Joe Rogan, Francis Ngannou revisited that dramatic fight. He shared his perspective on the loss, asserting that it wasn\u2019t the punch itself that knocked him down.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ngannou said, &#8220;I entered the ring not feeling my best. In the first round, I went down and wondered if I had slipped. I felt the punch, but it wasn\u2019t the punch that made me fall. I was really confused at that moment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_32038\"  width=\"696\" height=\"391\"  data-origwidth=\"696\" data-origheight=\"391\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LJ0eCBdqwvY?enablejsapi=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;modestbranding=0&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He added, &#8220;He hit my hand before hitting my face, and I felt it. I felt the punch, but it wasn\u2019t enough to put me down. After that, my vision started to blur, and I couldn\u2019t focus. I remember exactly what happened until I sat in the corner, but I forgot the minutes that followed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ngannou&#8217;s discussion didn\u2019t end with the fight; he also spoke about a difficult period he went through afterward, as he tragically lost his 15-month-old son, Kobi. During the same podcast, he reflected on this heartbreaking time, adding a deeply personal dimension to his story.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_68901\"  width=\"696\" height=\"391\"  data-origwidth=\"696\" data-origheight=\"391\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZmD4teneEoU?enablejsapi=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;modestbranding=0&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">These comments provide new insights into Francis Ngannou\u2019s performance that night and highlight the personal challenges he faced beyond the ring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In March, the boxing ring witnessed an electrifying clash between Francis Ngannou and Anthony Joshua, which ended in a dramatic defeat for Ngannou. The knockout punch delivered to the Cameroonian was particularly shocking, sparking widespread debate about the pivotal moment. Before his fight with Joshua, Ngannou had made a strong impression with his performance against [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87,29,45,86],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxe","8":"category-boxing-news","9":"category-mma","10":"category-mma-video"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3867"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3867"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3869,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3867\/revisions\/3869"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}