Ex-UFC welterweight titleholder Kamaru Usman recently offered his insights into Francis Ngannou’s recent knockout loss.
“The Predator” was defeated by former unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua through a brutal knockout in the second round last week.
This fight was Ngannou’s second attempt at professional boxing, following a narrowly lost match to WBC Heavyweight Champion Tyson Fury in a split decision the previous year.
On a recent episode of Pound 4 Pound with Kamaru & Henry, “The Nigerian Nightmare” shared his primary piece of advice for Ngannou: to take time before rushing back into the ring.
“When he feels up to it, me and my brother will have a conversation,” Usman said.
“We texted a little bit but we’ll have a conversation, and my advice for him would just be take his time, take your time. At the end of the day, no one can tell you when that time is, that appropriate time is because he’s a professional, just like I am, just like you are, he’s a professional. He knows his clock, he knows his time, he knows what he’s capable of being able to handle.”
Usman pointed out that it’s common for professional athletes to immediately seek another match after a defeat, hoping to quickly return to their winning ways.
However, he stressed the importance of exercising patience in such situations.
“So I would say just take your time, you don’t need to rush back because as competitors, as professionals, what we do do is we want it back ASAP,” Usman said.
“We want to get that back in blood as soon as possible. We lose, we don’t like to wallow in that feeling of a loss, you know, we don’t like to be defeated, so we want to get it back right away and get back in the win column.”
