Dewey Cooper, the longtime coach of former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, believes the Cameroonian’s ferocious fists will get the job done against Anthony Joshua.
On Friday, March 8, ‘The Predator’ returns to the boxing ring for a meeting with the WBC’s top-ranked heavyweight contender in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The fight comes five months removed from Ngnnou’s critically acclaimed boxing debut against Tyson Fury.
On that night, Ngannou came up short on the scorecards, suffering a highly questionable split decision loss, but his performance — including a third-round knockdown of Fury — was enough to land him a fight with one of the heavyweight division’s most formidable foes.
Speaking with True Geordie days away from the highly anticipated clash at Kingdom Arena, Cooper shared some insight into Ngannou’s most underrated strength.
“The most underrated quality about Francis is his intelligence,” Cooper said. “Yeah, he’s a big ol’ NFL football player if he’d been American, but he’s very smart. Not just in the fight world, but in business, economics, philosophy, and all that. He’s a very interesting dude, I can tell you that. He’s smart. He doesn’t just take your word for it. It has to have a theory behind it and it has to be proven. It has to be something that can be tested and stand correct.
“That’s a good quality about him and that’s why he develops so quickly when you train him. When you train him and you show him something, he’ll calculate it in his mind. He’ll do it. He’ll do a few variations of it. He’ll talk about it and do his scientific research and then he’ll be like, ‘Yeah, okay. That works,’ and we go. Some coaches don’t like that, but I love it because I want a guy to have full confidence in what we’re doing.
“I don’t care what method you use to assimilate the techniques as long as you’re willing to do it or figure out a better way to do it and I’m down to modify too.”
Unbelievable levels!!! 🔥 🔥🔥 10 days to go til they rumble! Knockout Chaos in Riyadh! #joshuangannou @turkialalshik 🇸🇦 pic.twitter.com/vAQFHGPr6h
— Eddie Hearn (@EddieHearn) February 27, 2024
Of course, you can’t talk about Francis Ngannou’s strengths without mentioning his incredible knockout power which has dispatched some of the biggest names in mixed martial arts, including Stipe Miocic, Jairzinho Rozenstruik, Junior dos Santos, Cain Velasquez, Curtis Blaydes, and Alistair Overeem.
Asked how Ngannou’s power compares to that of the legendary right hand possessed by Deontay Wilder, Cooper said:
“Francis has a lightning right hand, a lightning left hook,” Cooper said. “Lighting uppercuts with either hand, so Francis definitely has more variety of power. Francis can knock you out with any punch. Any uppercut, left or right hand lands, he can knock you out with it. Any hook, he can knock you out with it. When he goes southpaw, he can knock you out with the straight left. Conventional, he can knock you out with the straight right.
“I can’t disrespect Deontay and say that Francis definitely punches harder than him even though we have the proof. Go punch the power cube. Break Francis’ record. These things are measured. These aren’t opinions. At this time, Francis has the hardest measured punch so you have to say he’s the hardest puncher.”
Dewey Cooper Makes Bold Prediction for Francis Ngannou vs. Anthony Joshua
Recognizing the challenge that sits before them, Cooper brought in the best possible boxers to spar with ‘The Predator’ throughout his grueling fight camp. That mixed with the experience he gained by going 10 rounds with Tyson Fury will prove invaluable when he steps inside the ring with one of the heavyweight division’s most dangerous.
“We’re not playing this camp because we understand this is a real challenge and that Anthony Joshua is a dangerous opponent because he possesses a lot of things that Francis possesses — size, athletic ability, and good old-fashioned power.”
He continued, “Joshua has 27 wins with 24 stoppages. He can scorch you with a nice right hand so there’s a lot of dangers in this fight, but I feel that the skill and the knowledge, skills, and information that Francis gathered fighting Tyson Fury will be golden, even more than the training we’ve done in this fight, especially the halfway point going down the stretch.”
As for how he sees things playing out, Cooper is willing to bet the house that Francis Ngannou get’s the job done against Anthony Joshua.
“The ferocious fists of Francis will stop Joshua, period,” Cooper declared. “And I’ll put it all on the table. I normally wouldn’t do it, but we’re all in this fight. Francis has the experience from the Tyson Fury fight. He’s been 10 [rounds]. There’s nowhere in the crevice of my mind that he can’t do 10. So now I’m not gonna hold the chains and not let that lion go in captivity and destroy whatever he wants to destroy. I can assure you that this time.”
Watch the full interview below:
