Anthony Joshua ‘only wants to fight Francis Ngannou to win bragging rights over Tyson Fury’, claims ex-champ

ANTHONY JOSHUA has been accused of fighting Francis Ngannou only as a means to one-up Tyson Fury.

Ngannou last year put his MMA career on hold to cross over to the boxing ring to face Fury in October.

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Anthony Joshua squaring off with Francis Ngannou[/caption]

And Fury almost suffered the most disastrous of nights having been dropped in round three and taken to the wire over ten rounds.

He managed to escape with a controversial split-decision, keeping his undisputed title decider with Oleksandr Usyk, set for February 17, alive.

So with a rematch ruled out, Ngannou struck a deal with AJ, whose super-fight with Deontay Wilder was blown after the American was beaten.

But retired former super-middleweight champion Carl Froch believes Joshua is only fighting Ngannou to try and better Fury’s performance.

He told Lord Ping: “It’s bad for boxing because who wants to watch it?

“Because when Joshua wins, what’s he done? What’s he achieved? F*** all.

“All he wants is bragging rights to say he did a better job than Fury, but no one cares.

“Joshua-Ngannou is a pointless fight. It’s doing nothing for boxing.

ANTHONY JOSHUA VS FRANCIS NGANNOU: ALL THE DETAILS YOU NEED AHEAD OF HUGE CROSSOVER BOUT

“Sure, it keeps him ticking over while he waits for the winner of Fury versus Usyk, but why not fight a real boxer; fight Zhilei Zhang, fight Joe Joyce, fight Daniel Dubois.

“There are fights available to Joshua against top contenders and real boxers. But instead he’s jumping in with Ngannou in a pointless exhibition.”

Despite Froch’s blast, boxing bosses in Saudi want the winner of Fury and Usyk’s unification bout to then fight the victory of Joshua and Ngannou.

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Tyson Fury facing off with Oleksandr Usyk[/caption]

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Former super-middleweight world champion Carl Froch[/caption]