Joshua hits Riyadh for Ngannou, insists he never avoids fights

Joshua is set to take on ex-UFC star Francis Ngannou, who previously faced Fury, on Friday night, following his impressive victory over Otto Wallin in December.

Though the Joshua and Fury camps may not have seen eye to eye in recent years, that wasn’t noticeable after ‘AJ’ met with the father of his rival.

In a clip seen on X, formerly known as Twitter, the two were seen meeting in Riyadh and hugging, before Joshua said: ‘How are you? I have watched everything you have said.’

Fury then laughed and said to the media: ‘He’s a big fella up close, isn’t he?’

‼️ Anthony Joshua meeting Tyson Fury’s father John Fury in Riyadh today ahead of the Francis Ngannou fight on Friday…

The pair continued to chat for a brief moment before shaking hands once more and heading their separate ways.

Recently, Joshua claimed he had previously signed up to face both Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder in the past.

AJ insisted he had signed an agreement to face Wilder  as well as Fury in the past – to highlight that he does not avoid big fights as he prepares for another tough challenge in Ngannou.

‘You now what it proved to me, I’ve signed to fight Fury, I’ve signed to fight Wilder, I’ve signed to fight a lot of people,’ he told Sky Sports.

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‘I just do good business. I’m a good prizefighter, I don’t duck a challenge. I’m always up for it. I just feel to myself I’ll always be here and ready to fight any time.’

Joshua and Fury looked to have struck a deal to fight in 2021 in Saudi Arabia before the Gypsy King was ordered to face Wilder himself for a third time following an arbitration.

Then the following year, Fury made an offer to Joshua to fight for his WBC title after his second loss to Usyk, before setting him a string of deadlines to agree the fight, and eventually calling it off after the Watford-born star failed to return his contract in time.

Speaking of talks with Wilder, Joshua added that the fight was not dead in the water.

He said: ‘We met up, we spoke to lawyers, we signed contracts, all that good stuff.

‘It’s a fight that fans want to see. I’m not saying it’s completely written off.

‘It’s a fight where everything was signed and sealed. It just needed both of us to deliver. And he didn’t meet his end of the bargain.’