LAGOS,Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) –Former UFC middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya has heaped praise on Francis Ngannou in the wake of his loss to Anthony Joshua last month.
Ngannou’s second foray into boxing ended disastrously when he endured a devastating knockout by ‘AJ’ in the second round, following two knockdowns earlier in the bout.
Adesanya witnessed Joshua dismantling his close friend from the comfort of his home and had a strikingly impassioned reaction, captured in his YouTube video.
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During a recent appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, the former UFC middleweight champion recounted his experience of watching Ngannou suffer his first-ever knockout in combat sports.
Adesanya expressed that while it was painful to see Ngannou go down in such a manner, he still holds the Cameroonian fighter in high esteem:
“I talked to Kamaru [Usman], he put it best, he was like, ‘Yo, to us that’s Superman.’ So, to see Superman hurt like that really messed me up. Even if it had happened with Joshua, I would have felt the same way. I don’t wanna see them go through that, that was a bad knockout.“
He added: “Doesn’t change anything, I think about Francis. He’s still a Superman to me, and he’s still the man, he’s still the guy who played his own game regardless of what happened in his life and in his career.”