Francis Ngannou admitted that he was feeling sleepy before his fight with Anthony Joshua because he was brought to the arena too early.
The former UFC heavyweight champion lost the fight by a second-round knockout.
This was only his second professional boxing match, with his first loss being against Tyson Fury in 2023.
Ngannou believes that being forced to arrive at the arena earlier than his opponent affected his performance.
“I remember being in the locker [room] trying to warm up, and it wasn’t going well.”
“I was falling asleep! I’m sweating, but I was falling asleep.
“But I’m sure that’s how some people that I have fought and have beaten have been before. No blame on anybody, the blame here is all on me.
“It’s not like I fought at 3 a.m. and he fought at like midnight or something. We both fought at 3 a.m.
“Something that’s happened is that they get me to the arena very early. My pickup time was 10.30pm to go to the arena. And then, when we get to the arena, they tell us that we are scheduled around 1.45am.
“They come to the locker room around 1 and Joshua [was just arriving]. I’m like, ‘OK, we are fighting at the same time, how come I have a pickup time?’
“We received a schedule, an email, and then for some reason I was there at least one hour before.
“They do this kind of trick to get you tired. I was like cool. I didn’t know how it was, how important that was, until the fight day that I have to get there two hours before.”
Ngannou had previously stated that he intends to go back to MMA to fight Renan Ferreira.
A date for the fight has not been set yet, but the 37-year-old had mentioned that he would face the winner of Ferreira’s recent match with Ryan Bader, which Ferreira won by TKO in the first round.
Despite preparing to return to the octagon, Ngannou, who has expressed interest in continuing boxing, has no regrets about how his fight with Joshua ended.
