Anthony Joshua v Francis Ngannou: 10-round heavyweight boxing match – live

Hello and welcome to Riyadh’s Kingdom Arena for tonight’s crossover match between Anthony Joshua and Francis Ngannou. It’s been billed as the Knockout Chaos: a scheduled 10-round bout under boxing rules between the former two-time unified heavyweight champion amnd a former UFC champion with exactly one professional boxing match under his belt.

Joshua (27-3, 24 KO), at 34 years old, has won three straight bouts after back-to-back defeats ot Oleksandr Usyk and is still angling for another run at a heavyweight belt. But the 2012 Olympic gold medalist has put those plans on hold for a highly lucrative date with the 37-year-old Ngannou, who defied all expectations five months ago with a disputed split-decision loss to lineal heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, scoring the only knockdown of the evening along the way. Fury may have won the fight, but Ngannou clearly won the event.

That automatically makes Ngannou (0-1, 0 KO) an awfully intriguing proposition entering tonight’s sophomore outing. But was Ngannou really that good against Fury, or was Fury that poor in overlooking the Cameroonian neophyte? We’ll have answers soon enough.

We’re around an hour from the main event ringwalks. Plenty to come between now and then.