Anthony Joshua hasn’t been guaranteed a mandatory world title shot if he beats Francis Ngannou in their crossover fight.

Former two-time heavyweight champion Joshua welcomes Ngannou back into the ring on March 8 after the ex-UFC champion’s stunning boxing debut against Tyson Fury. Ngannou dropped the heavyweight champion and only lost by one point in a controversial decision and will now look to win his first boxing fight against Joshua.

Joshua and Ngannou were told the winner of their fight will get a chance to fight either Fury or Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed belts. WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman isn’t seemingly on the same page as he told Gambling.com : “Anthony Joshua was first ranked by the WBC when he started as a professional and then he kept moving up.

“He was ranked inside the top five and then number 2 ranked when he received the opportunity to fight for another title [IBF]. He has had a sensational career and if he beats Francis Ngannou, then he is number one in the WBC while Francis Ngannou is number 10 so the winner will certainly be positioned for great things in the immediate future.”

“The WBC already sanctioned Fury v Usyk and the rematch. We received the request and have already accepted a rematch if the promoters put it together so that’s where the WBC stands. If the promoters change their request for the rematch, we will certainly address it

Joshua and Ngannou sized each other up for the first time at a launch press conference in London earlier this month. Ngannou isn’t interested in fighting for a world title anytime soon and Joshua admitted he has put his quest to become a three-time heavyweight champion on hold for now.

“Every fight leads to somewhere, so this fight is my everything, my soul, my spirit, my mind, my body,” Joshua said. “We’ll see where it leads me but at the moment I’m not thinking about championship belts or anything other than Francis. We’re putting the belts on hold, I’m searching for greatness.”

Anthony Joshua is following in fellow Brit Tyson Fury’s footsteps by taking on the former UFC champion Francis Ngannou on March 8 and the latest onlooker to predict what might happen is Tim Bradley.

Joshua will be hoping to deal with Ngannou rather more comprehensively than Fury. That fight back in October was the big-hitting MMA star’s boxing debut and was arguably one of the best ever as he kept Fury on his toes and working hard for the full 10 rounds.

Despite hitting the canvas in the third, Fury rallied to a close split decision points win. Ngannou now goes in with Joshua, who will be fighting for the fourth time in 12 months.

He has picked up rebuild wins over Jermaine Franklin, Robert Helenius and Otto Wallin that have all got him back into good form and backed by many people to lift a world title for the third time at some point soon.

Speaking to ProBox TV, Bradley broke down the contest.

The reward for the winner of this fight could well be a battle with the newly crowned undisputed heavyweight king once Fury and Oleksandr Usyk have settled their differences on February 17, with Joshua picking Usyk for the win.

Lennox Lewis was the last man to hold all four major belts in the marquee division 24 years ago. Right now we are fast approaching a new king of the division being crowned when Frank Warren promoted Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk meet on February 17 for the WBO, WBA, WBC and IBF titles.

It has been strongly suggested that whoever wins that fight will then be matched up against the winner of Anthony Joshua versus Francis Ngannou on March 8, though Lewis doesn’t think either of those men is deserving of the shot.

He has said that the fight is a ‘spectacle’ that adds nothing to Joshua’s resume and that Ngannou shouldn’t be in a position to challenge for undisputed after just two fights and that the winner of Zhilei Zhang versus Joe Parker would be more fitting.

Speaking to Seconds Out, Frank Warren has now responded to those comments.

Warren was then asked if he fought Anthony Joshua deserved a shot at the undisputed should he beat Ngannou – a contest one fellow UFC star thinks is 50/50.

Fans will certainly agree with that.

Anthony Joshua is inspired by Francis Ngannou and won’t underestimate him when the two faceoff in a 10-round clash in Saudi Arabia on March 8.

Joshua, 34, is hoping an impressive knockout can fire up interest in a Tyson Fury showdown after the Gypsy King was almost upset by Ngannou last October.

Cameroon-born Ngannou made it to the top of UFC after travelling as a refugee from Africa to Europe, which included harrowing journeys by sea and truck. It’s something which has inspired Joshua.

“The journey he has taken, he’s a goal getter. He is someone who sets a goal and goes and gets it. To travel across that desert. He said like people that travel across there, they fall off the car, back of the truck and they’re left to die. Think of how many people that you know that have come before you that have tried that same route and you’re going through it. It takes a lot,” Joshua said.

“It takes a lot to travel the Mediterranean, the sea, he crossed, it’s a lot man. He said he couldn’t swim either. It is inspiration. It is someone who searched for a better life and he’s doing it in one of the toughest sports, combat sport. He’s a determined person and I find it inspirational.”

Ngannou almost stunned the world when he floored Fury on his boxing debut last October before the Gypsy King recovered to edge out a win on points and save embarrassment and Joshua has said he won’t underestimate the former UFC champion.

“Would I have underestimated him? No, the problem with me is I train the same for every fight; obviously we train differently, but I do always work hard, so I wouldn’t have underestimated him.

“But now I know the guy can fight, I know. There’s no element of surprise, like, ‘He’s gonna be sh*t, he’s not gonna be able to move, he’s gonna have sh*t footwork, his feet are gonna be like he’s stuck in the sand.’ No, he can move, he can come forward, so it’ll be good to see how I deal with that – and how he deals with me as well,” he said.

Promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom had no issues with convincing his star boxer, former two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, to fight MMA veteran Francis Ngannou.

Joshua was initially being positioned to face former WBC champ Deontay Wilder in a long-awaited fight.

That scenario was derailed when Joseph Parker won an upset twelve round unanimous decision over Wilder on December 23 in Saudi Arabia. Joshua appeared in the main event of that card and stopped Otto Wallin.

“Look, we were due to announce the Deontay Wilder fight in the ring that night,” Hearn told The MMA Hour. “Both guys had signed a contract to announce the fight and [Turki Alalshikh] was very excited. Obviously it was one of the most highly anticipated fights that could be made this fall. It’s four years in the making, everyone was really excited. Obviously Deontay Wilder lost. So from that moment, the cogs are turning in [Alalshikh’s] mind, ‘What are we going to do on March 8th, March 9th?’

“As soon as the fights finish, he’s like, ‘Right, let’s talk.’ And we had a meeting and I said to him, ‘I think [Francis Ngannou] is the biggest fight out there.’ I said it to you when I came on [The MMA Hour after Fury vs. Ngannou] — we’re talking about two giants in Anthony Joshua and Francis Ngannou, two men who look like they are carved out of stone, two devastating punchers. And I’ve always felt like it was the biggest fight out there. I told [Alalshikh] that and he felt the same, and these people move very quickly.”

Joshua vs. Ngannou is scheduled to take place on March 8 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Hearn is expecting a very dominant victory by his man.

“Honestly, previous to the Fury fight, it wasn’t a fight that [Joshua] was interested in,” Hearn said. “Obviously we just boxed a guy in Otto Wallin that really gave Fury a really tough time, cut him, think he had 48 stitches — the fight should’ve been stopped, Otto Wallin should’ve won that fight. But it is what it is, and AJ went out and it was a mismatch. He demolished [Wallin]. And I believe we’re going to do the same here. So that performance over Tyson Fury, of course, that was really the point, the moment that made this fight credible.”

Frank Warren has warned Anthony Joshua that he has “everything to lose” when he enters the ring to face former MMA star Francis Ngannou in March in Saudi Arabia. Ngannou produced a stunning performance in his debut in the boxing ring as he knocked down Tyson Fury in October. The Cameroonian lost the bout but Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn also warned that he is a “dangerous” opponent.

Heavyweight boxing in the United Kingdom is in good hands. Once dominated by the Americans, the likes of Tyson Fury, Daniel Dubois, Joe Joyce, Dillian Whyte, and a long list of others have wrestled things back in favor of the Brits.

Currently, thanks to wins over Deontay Wilder, and Wladimir Klitschko several years ago, Fury is viewed as the heavyweight division’s top dog. Anthony Joshua, however, is vexed whenever Fury is given that sort of praise. When it comes to his home soil, he refuses to accept that anyone is better than him.

“I am the top heavyweight in the UK,” said Joshua during a recent presser.

The conjecture surrounding who’s the best heavyweight in the United Kingdom will be cleared in the next few months. Fury will take on Oleksandr Usyk for a shot at undisputed, with the loser likely to enforce their immediate rematch clause. Joshua, in the meanwhile, won’t simply sit back without jumping in on the action.

Officially, the former unified champ will square off against Francis Ngannou on March 8th. As long as everything goes according to plan, Joshua (27-3, 24 KOs) envisions a matchup with the winner of Fury vs. Usyk.

Before giving thought to how Joshua would do in a third fight with Usyk or a showdown against Fury, his desires may come across as bemusing. The fighters represented in the United Kingdom are great in their own right, but the rest of the world has plenty of their own heavyweight talent.

Although countless contenders reside all across the globe, Joshua isn’t losing any sleep. Of course, Zhilei Zhang, a native of China, Filip Hrgovic, hailing from Croatia, and Jared Anderson, the loquacious American – are all legitimate threats. Joshua though, is focusing on what’s taking place in his neck of the woods.

“I’m not really too concerned about the world,” continued Joshua. “I’m trying to conquer where I live.”