Tony Bellew has described Anthony Joshua as a “different animal” to Tyson Fury ahead of his fight with Francis Ngannou.
Joshua faces ex-UFC heavyweight champion, Ngannou on March 8 in Saudi Arabia just over four months on from the latter’s debut where he pushed Fury all the way in a contentious split decision loss.
Ngannou floored Fury and frustrated the WBC heavyweight champion, however former cruiserweight world champion, Bellew insists Joshua poses a completely different threat to the Cameroonian.
“Styles make fights,” the 41-year-old said to Matchroom Boxing.
“You can’t judge a man’s whole career based on one fight and you’ve got very little footage to actually study.
“He goes on the back foot against Fury which was always the plan, because that was what was going to make it really hard.
“Tyson Fury struggles with people who go on the back foot.
“Joshua is a completely different animal to Tyson Fury and when he smells fear and he smells blood, he’ll jump all over him.
“Stronger puncher. Quicker in combinations. Just not as good a boxer and not as slick as Tyson Fury, but the slickness was taken away from Tyson Fury, because Ngannou went on the back foot.
“Ngannou was on the back foot the whole night against Fury, making him miss, countering him and actually dropped him.
“Joshua isn’t going to give him them kind of advantages on fight night.”
‘AJ’ bounced back from consecutive defeats to Oleksandr Usyk with three victories in 2023, retiring Otto Wallin after five rounds in his most recent outing in December.
Turki Alalshikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, who has been given the resources to bring major events to the region, announced at the Joshua-Ngannou press conference his intention to match the winner with the victor of the undisputed heavyweight title fight between Fury and Usyk, which is set to take place on May 18.
Ngannou, though signed a deal to fight in the Professional Fighters League (PFL) and is set to make his inaugural appearance in the SmartCage against the the winner of Saturday’s clash between Renan Ferreira and Ryan Bader.
