Mike Tyson not coaching Ngannou for Joshua's bout

Former UFC champion Francis Ngannou has revealed that Mike Tyson hasn’t been helping him prepare for his upcoming fight against Anthony Joshua.

Ngannou is currently preparing for his second boxing fight following his stunning debut against Tyson Fury last October. Ngannou recruited ‘Iron Mike’ to help him train for the Fury fight and the boxing legend’s services paid off as Ngannou put his rival down to only lose by a single point in a controversial decision.

Ngannou has been in Saudi Arabia for the past five weeks training at Tyson’s new boxing gym in Riyadh. “To be honest with this fight since my training was here [Riyadh], we didn’t get Mike Tyson here,” Ngannou told Mirror Fighting. “He came in like three times [for Fury], he was more advising. He would come and watch our training, we would be there to give advice.”

Ngannou and Tyson did reunite over the weekend as they sat next to each other whilst cage-side for the PFL vs Bellator Championships event in Riyadh. The first major MMA event in Saudi Arabia cemented Ngannou’s opponent for his cage fight return as he will face Renan Ferreira after the Brazilian knocked out Ryan Bader in just 21 seconds.

Ngannou was goaded by Fury in the build-up to their crossover clash but former two-time heavyweight champion Joshua has taken a different approach by refusing to belittle the Cameroonian. Ngannou isn’t surprised by Joshua’s lack of trash talk and explains why any nerves shown by the Brit could be a good thing.

“Anthony Joshua never trash talks, his personality is more serious, unlike Tyson Fury who is more like a playboy. I think when it comes to fighting, they both know how to fight and that’s what I’m focused on. He might have been nervous but that doesn’t mean anything, in fact, I think being nervous means he is taking things very seriously. It’s very important because he’s going to do his best to show up on the day with everything,” he added.

Joshua and Ngannou have been promised an undisputed world title fight against the winner of Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk with a win on March 8. Ngannou is seemingly hoping Fury can get past the Ukrainian as he wants the chance to avenge his heavily scrutinised points loss to the Brit.