On Friday, March 8, Anthony Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs) faced Francis Ngannou (0-2) in the main event at “Knockout Chaos.” The undercard saw impressive victories for Mark Chamberlain and Israil Madrimov before Joseph Parker survived two knockdowns to defeat Zhilei Zhang. Following the completion of the other fights, we saw Joshua brutally stop Ngannou in the second round of their heavyweight clash. After the impressive victory, attention now turns to what fight comes next for Anthony Joshua.
Anthony Joshua Next Fight: The Future for AJ
Joshua vs. Ngannou Recap
The beginning of the fight saw both studying the other, with Ngannou looking light on his feet before AJ landed a big straight right that sent Ngannou to the canvas. Despite Ngannou seeing out the round, he couldn’t evade the power punching of AJ for much longer.
Joshua stayed patient, knowing he could hurt his Cameroonian opponent, and it wasn’t long until AJ landed another right hand that sent the former UFC champion down again. The British fighter quickly followed up with a massive right hand, which folded Ngannou and forced referee Ricky Gonzalez to wave off the fight.
Anthony Joshua Next Fight: Filip Hrgovic
Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk is set for May 18 for the undisputed WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO titles. Both fighters have agreed to a two-way rematch agreement, which seemingly guarantees a rematch. Should that second fight happen, it’s likely the titles will fragment, thus making a potential fight between AJ and Filip Hrgović for the IBF strap, a likely one.
Joshua will look to control the distance as he’s done so well during his last two fights and let that right hand go like he did in the destruction of Ngannou. Hrgović will look to fight off the back foot and counter effectively, but the power and accuracy of AJ will surely be too much for the Croatian heavyweight.
Winner of Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk
With the two-match deal in place for Usyk vs. Fury, it seems likely AJ will have to wait for his chance to fight the winner, however with Turki Alalshikh involved, it’s not impossible the winner of the first Usyk-Fury fight ends up fighting AJ. Joshua and Fury have been rumoured to be close to fighting for a number of years, and a clash between the two would undoubtedly be a massive contest.
Usyk has defeated AJ twice, and a third fight seemed highly unlikely after the rematch win for the Ukrainian. The AJ resurgence and Ben Davison wanting the Usyk fight has made a trilogy bout far from unrealistic, especially if the Ukrainian fighter defeats “The Gypsy King” on May 18.
Joshua is also ranked highly in the WBC and WBA, making potential fights next against Manuel Charr, Martin Bakole and Frank Sanchez possibilities.
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