Ngannou will struggle to derail in-form Joshua, says Swede Wallin

Heavyweight Otto Wallin was just as shocked as the rest of the boxing world when Francis Ngannou floored Tyson Fury but the Swede says it's unlikely there will be a repeat against Anthony Joshua when the two meet in Saudi Arabia on Friday.

Former UFC heavyweight champion Ngannou lost to Fury in his first professional boxing match in Riyadh last October in what many expected would be an easy win for the giant British boxer.

However, the mixed martial artist managed to down Fury in the third round, sending shockwaves through the boxing world.

"A guy like Ngannou, who is that big and who hits that hard, always has a chance, but I'm having a hard time seeing him beating Joshua," Wallin told Reuters from his home in New York where he is back in training.

The 33-year-old Wallin, who rose to prominence by going the distance before losing a world title fight to Fury in 2019, suffered only the second loss and first KO defeat of his pro career last December as Joshua out-boxed him over five rounds.

"Since boxing against Joshua, I have a lot of respect for him," Wallin said.

The career of Joshua, 34, had hit a rocky patch as he lost his world titles to Andy Ruiz in 2019 before winning them back and then lost them again to Oleksandr Usyk in 2021 before another defeat in a rematch with the Ukrainian the next year.

Against Wallin, however, the Briton was back to his imperious best, a stinging jab and lightning left hook doing the damage before the Swede's corner called it quits after the fifth round.

"Joshua was good – big, strong, long reach, he countered well," Wallin explained.

"There were some concrete things that he did well that I don't want to talk about, I want to keep them to myself, but there's other concrete things that I need to