Dillian Whyte believes that Francis Ngannou was “a bit complacent” against Anthony Joshua.
Ngannou was knocked out in the second round against Joshua last weekend, and it was a far more convincing win over the former UFC heavyweight champion than the one that Tyson Fury enjoyed last year.
Back in October 2023, Fury was knocked to the canvas by the Cameroonian and only won by a split-decision victory, with many observers thinking it should have gone the other way.
Fury next fights Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight title on May 18 on DAZN PPV.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Whyte thinks that his impressive debut stopped him making some fundamental changes.
"Francis is not experienced enough to beat the top guys. He got a bit complacent because he did well against Fury but Fury didn't take him seriously," he said.
"Fury just thought he was going to outbox him and he gave Fury some problems but that was his undoing.
"I think that fight gave him false confidence to the point where, when he was getting hammered with big punches, he stayed in the pocket and he wasn't trying to move his head or hold or anything.
"He went down, stood up in the same place. Didn't move his head, went down, stood up in the same place and basically waited for the third right hand.
"So, I knew it was going to happen and I picked AJ to win anyway.
"AJ is a puncher and you don't just stand up in front of someone like AJ with your hands basically down and then switching stances mid-fight against a right-handed puncher. Why did he go southpaw? It didn't make any sense.
"I just knew that AJ's experience and his power would be too much. I thought Francis would be a little bit better, to be honest, but Francis... he's doing boxing, but it's not recognised boxing training so he hasn't covered the basics.
"Someone like AJ, an experienced gold medallist, all these world title fights, he covers the basics on a daily basis and that is where Francis came unstuck."
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