"Trick to get you tired" - Francis Ngannou talks about how being brought to arena few hours before Anthony Joshua impacted him

Former UFC heavyweight king Francis Ngannou has shared details on how he was impacted by the circumstances preceding his fight against Anthony Joshua.

Ngannou recently sat down for a conversation with Ariel Helwani on an episode of The MMA Hour. During his time there, 'The Predator' shed light on what went down a few hours before his showdown agaisnt Joshua.

The Cameroonian claimed that he was asked to report to the arena two hours before his scheduled opponent 'AJ' actually arrived at the venue. Ngannou shared that similar incidents happened during the fight week, but he did not pay much attention to them. Ngannou added that he realised the importance of that wasted time way later on the day of the fight.

He said:

"They get me to the arena very early. Like, my pick-up time was 10:30 pm to go the arena and when we get to the arena, they tell us that we have re-scheduled around 1:45 am, right? And then around 1 am, they came to the locker... and then Joshua, he hasn't arrived or he was arriving... I was there atleast two hours before him. I could have just stayed home... Even during the [fight] week, we were going to places and had to wait and Dewey [Cooper] was complaining like, 'They do this kind of trick to get you tired.' I was cool... I didn't know how important that was until the fight day that I have to get there like two hours before."

Check out Francis Ngannou's comments from the 5:30 mark below:

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Francis Ngannou speaks about his future plans after the loss to Anthony Joshua

Francis Ngannou went up against Anthony Joshua on March 8 at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The night did not go well for the Cameroonian as he suffered a devastating knockout loss in the second round of the fight.

Since then, fans have been wondering about Ngannou's future in combat sports. During his conversation with Ariel Helwani, 'The Predator' shared that although he planned on returning to boxing soon, he was uncertain about the future and an MMA fight might possibly be next on the cards for him. He said:

"Right now, I don't know. I started to feel like boxing, it now owes me something that I have to claim. The way that this fight happened is not the way that it's supposed to or that it should've. I think now I need to do boxing to claim something, to claim my respect, to claim my dignity, to claim everything. MMA is there... I think it depends on the time frame of what's happened and the time frame also [of] what is it, but maybe it could be MMA first. I don't really know, but yeah."

Check out Francis Ngannou's comments below: