Anthony Joshua mocked Francis Ngannou on social media following his brutal knockout victory on Saturday night.
The Brit dominated the ‘Knockout Chaos’ main event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, flooring his opponent twice before delivering a savage KO that left the MMA star requiring oxygen.
Many had thought the fight was going to be too close to call on the back of Ngannou’s debut in the sport, when he came close to defeating world champion Tyson Fury, but he didn’t get a sniff as Joshua looked back to his best.
AJ has now surely set up a world title bout against the winner of Tyson Fury’s undisputed fight against Oleksandr Usyk this spring, which would see him get the chance to become a three-time world champion.
Joshua was humble in his victory, praising Ngannou and telling him to remain in the sport, but took a dig on social media as he celebrated his victory.
Anthony Joshua mocked Francis Ngannou on social media following his statement victory
Joshua (right) produced a stunning KO victory over Ngannou (left) in their highly-anticipated bout on Friday
The British star sent Ngannou crashing to the canvas on three occasions, inside two rounds, during the heavyweight clash
He shared a video of his knockout punch on his accounts, boasting his victory to his 16.3million Instagram followers, 3.2m X followers and his 7.4m Facebook followers.
The post was captioned: ‘Predator to prey,’ with ‘predator’ crossed out, in reference to Ngannou’s nickname.
He did, however, also pay tribute to his opponent, sharing a selfie of the two captioned: ‘Respect my guy (handshake emoji). African giants (world emoji).’
Joshua had maintained a focused approach throughout fight week, looking laid back and convinced he was on his way to victory in the bout.
He delivered on his promise, and praised his opponent post-fight, but delivered another bizarre post-event monologue on the microphone following victory.
He did pay tribute to the MMA star in the ring after the bout, telling him to stay in boxing
He also shared a snap of the pair online, branding both men ‘African giants’ and paying ‘respect’
Inside the ring, Joshua said: ‘It is what it is. What I was saying, en route to the championship, you should stay focused. I stepped aside from the mission, I thought it was for the broadcasters for entertainment.
‘But I saw him against Fury and thought, “damn, he can fight”. We welcomed him, he’s a great champion. It doesn’t take away from his capability. He can come again, I told him he can stay in boxing. It’s up to him.
‘The Ben Davison performance centre [is the reason for my improvement]. I’m hungry, stay hungry and all that good stuff. I don’t know [if I’m coming into my peak], it only takes one shot, if that was me, you’d be saying, ‘”Joshua should retire”.’