Ricky Hatton Confident Anthony Joshua Will ‘Shine’ Against Francis Ngannou

Ricky Hatton believes Anthony Joshua will defeat Francis Ngannou when the two fight.

Joshua is set to take on the former UFC heavyweight champion on March 8 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in a massive fight for both men. Ngannou impressed in his boxing debut as he lost a very competitive split decision to Tyson Fury, and will now face Joshua.

Heading into the fight, many believe Ngannou can beat Joshua, but for Ricky Hatton, he doesn’t see that happening.

“We’re in limbo aren’t we – was Ngannou better than we gave him credit for, or did Tyson take Ngannou lightly? Did Tyson not train as hard as he could and that’s why Ngannou looked as good as he did? There’s a big question mark around Ngannou, we all know he can hit, but was it because Tyson took him lightly? All these questions no one is sure about yet. Tyson didn’t physically look as good as he normally does. And he’s also had those three fights with Wilder that may have taken something out of him,” Hatton said to Instant Casino.

“If you’re asking where my money would go, it would go on AJ because he’s an exceptional boxer, you don’t become an Olympic gold medalist and a two time world champion for nothing. He doesn’t have the lateral movement of Tyson Fury, so he’s going to be standing in front of Francis Ngannou, which worries me a little bit because if AJ does cop one, that could be that. But I’m going to go with AJ based on his confidence and his new team. I think he’ll have enough firepower to shine against Ngannou,” Hatton continued.

“AJ-Ngannou and Fury-Usyk have been arranged so the winners fight and hopefully it’s AJ and Fury, what a sight that would be to see. And also it’s great to see Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren on the same table and working together because I think that’s what boxing needs: promoters working together. To see Frank and Eddie on the same table working together, I thought to myself ‘this is going to be good for our sport’ because I think we’d hit a brick wall in our sport in terms of fights not happening, forget being a trainer or former fighter, just as a boxing fan seeing Eddie and Frank working together was like sunshine for me,” Hatton concluded.

Do you agree with Ricky Hatton?