Key events
Joshua knocks out Ngannou in round two!
The fight continues on even terms for two minute until Ngannou goes down with about a minute left in the round, a heavy straight right-left hook combination. And this time the Cameroonian looks in serious trouble. Ngannou somehow makes it to his feet, but Joshua wastes no time: the Briton surges into the pocket and drops him with a heat-seeking overhand right that leaves Ngannous out cold on the canvas. The referee Richard Gonzales immediately waves it off and it’s over! Anthony Joshua has defeated Francis Ngannou with a savage knockout.
Ngannou down in round one!
Joshua darts in with a jab to the body. Ngannou looking more comfortable than he did in the early stages against Fury. Joshua lands another nice left jab. Joshua blocks a Ngannou right hook upstairs with his glove. Ngannou switches from orthodox to southpaw with about a minute left in the round. What confidence! And just like that, Joshua detonates a massive right hand on Ngannou’s chin and Ngannou is down in a heap! And Ngannou is hurt! He beats the count at nine and there’s about 40 seconds till the bell. Will he make it? And he does! What a first round!
Guardian’s unofficial score: Joshua 8-10 Ngannou (Joshua 8-10 Ngannou)
The fighters have been announced. The final instructions have been given. The seconds are out. We’ll pick it up with round-by-round coverage from here.
It’s 3.19am in Riyadh and the fighters are making their entrances. First it’s Ngannou, who looks all business as he makes the long walk at a methodical pace to God’s Plan by Drake. Now it’s Joshua’s turn. The former two-time unified heavyweight champion strolls down a bridge flanked by pyrotechnics and takes a direct route to the ring as Skepta’s I Spy blasts at ear-splitting volumes. All in all an understated ringwalk by AJ standards. Both fighters are inside the ropes and Michael Buffer has taken the microphone to go through the introductions.
Parker beats Zhang by majority decision
Parker has eked out the result despite getting knocked down in the third and eighth rounds. One ringside judge scored it a 113-113 draw while the other two had it 114-112 and 115-111 for the New Zealand puncher. Parker is now the WBO interim heavyweight champion.
Zhang has dropped Parker for a second time, this time in the eighth round with a chopping lead right hook. Parker had really turned things around since the first knockdown in the third, taking advantage of a suddenly passive opponent who’d seemed content to hunt of the knockout. But almost out of nowhere, Zhang sends his foe to the canvas with another innocent-looking blow.
The final undercard bout has come alive as Zhang drops Parker in the third round. It was a gorgeous straight left that probably didn’t travel farther than a foot. Parker makes it to the bell but blood is pouring from his nose, adding a sense of urgency into what had been unfolding as a cagey, technical encounter. Advantage to Big Bang Zhang.
A special cameo at ringside. A certain Portuguese football manager has taken his seat for tonight’s fights.
Vargas retains WBC featherweight title by split draw
Rey Vargas has just retained the WBC’s version of the featherweight title after a controversial split draw with Liverpool’s Nick Ball, the undefeated prospect who roared back from a quiet start to score a pair of knockdowns in the later rounds.
One judge scored it 114-112 for Vargas, another 116-110 for Ball while the third had it 113-113. The announcement is met by a chorus of boos from the Kingdom Arena crowd that only rises in volume when Vargas is interviewed in the ring during the aftermath.
Next up: a delicious heavyweight scrap between WBO interim champion Zhilei Zhang and Joseph Parker, who held the WBO’s primary belt from 2016 through 2018. The main event between Joshua and Ngannou will follow.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to Riyadh’s Kingdom Arena for tonight’s crossover match between Anthony Joshua and Francis Ngannou. It’s been billed as the Knockout Chaos: a scheduled 10-round bout under boxing rules between the former two-time unified heavyweight champion amnd a former UFC champion with exactly one professional boxing match under his belt.
Joshua (27-3, 24 KO), at 34 years old, has won three straight bouts after back-to-back defeats ot Oleksandr Usyk and is still angling for another run at a heavyweight belt. But the 2012 Olympic gold medalist has put those plans on hold for a highly lucrative date with the 37-year-old Ngannou, who defied all expectations five months ago with a disputed split-decision loss to lineal heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, scoring the only knockdown of the evening along the way. Fury may have won the fight, but Ngannou clearly won the event.
That automatically makes Ngannou (0-1, 0 KO) an awfully intriguing proposition entering tonight’s sophomore outing. But was Ngannou really that good against Fury, or was Fury that poor in overlooking the Cameroonian neophyte? We’ll have answers soon enough.
We’re around an hour from the main event ringwalks. Plenty to come between now and then.
Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s Donald McRae’s lookahead to tonight’s fight in Riyadh.