He said: “Listen, I think we both fight at 3am. It’s not like I fought at 3 a.m. and he fought at like midnight or something. We both fought at 3am. What I think, something that’s happened is that they get me to the arena very early. Like my pickup time was 10.30pm to go to the arena. And then when we get to the arena, they tell us that we are scheduled around 1.45am. right? They come to the locker around 1 and Joshua [was just arriving around 1]. I’m like, ‘OK, we are fighting at the same time, how come I have a pickup time?’ We received a schedule, an email, and then for some reason I was there at least one hour before. But for the fight, at least two hours beforehand. They do this kind of trick to get you tired. I was like cool, I was like, ‘Bro, it’s OK.’ I didn’t know how it was, how important that was, until the fight day that I have to get there two hours before.”

Eddie Hearn responds to Francis Ngannou’s accusations

Anthony Joshua did not respond to these accusations, nor do we think he ever will respond because that is how the game is played. Fighters who know this sport will all tell you that they need to be prepared for anything. Ngannou wasn’t prepared for getting his time wasted and that played a significant role in his defeat. For promoter Eddie Hearn, he only responded with a poignant quip: “I’m not sure he has come around yet.”

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