Anthony Joshua steamrolled Francis Ngannou in two rounds, annihilating the Cameroonian hero with a booming right hand that left the MMA icon flat on his back.
Ngannou was down three times in all, each time from right hands, before he was ultimately blasted out by that shot and separated from his senses.
It was all over after 2:38 of the second round.
The pressure had been on Joshua, who hopes to put his name back into the title picture and box the winner of the May 18 unified heavyweight title clash between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk.
Asked if that was what he wanted next, Joshua responded: “Yes it is.”
The fighters set up as you might have expected to begin with. Joshua, 28-2 (25 KOs), looked conventional and fluid; Ngannou, with his wide-armed defense, stepped into the fray. Joshua was caught circling to his left early on and he caught a heavy right hand on his glove with his left hand high.
Ngannou, an MMA great but now 0-2 as a professional boxer, changed southpaw early on, as he had done against Fury last October, but Joshua saw it as an open invitation and threw a long right hand through the middle – down the pipe – and Ngannou was on his back and listening to the referee Ricky Gonzalez’s count for the first time.
Ngannou looked shocked. Joshua was measured and composed. He threw to the body and then landed another right over the top as he pressed his advantage and with Joshua dictating terms in the second Ngannou was over once more from another right hand with a minute to go.
Ngannou made it back to his feet but didn’t look comfortable. In fact, he looked flustered, but he nodded that he was okay to continue.
Then, as the two met back in the center of the ring, Joshua launched forward with a huge overhand right and a dazed Ngannou seemed to be out on impact.
Ngannou’s right leg buckled beneath him, laced with equal measures of drama and brutality, and Ngannou was stretched out flat on his back as the referee waved it off.
Joshua has knocked out a few in dramatic fashion, and that was a crushing shot to add to the highlight reel.
Ngannou was given oxygen and remained on the canvas for some time as the ring started to fill with people, and then the Cameroonian was tended to while he sat on his stool and recovered.
Joshua, a former two-time world champion and a 2012 Olympic gold medallist, urged Ngannou to carry on with his boxing career.
Ngannou, 37, who decked Tyson Fury on his way to a narrow decision loss last October in his professional boxing debut, listened, but you cannot be sure he was able to retain anything that was being said to him such was the devastation he had just encountered.
“He can come again,” Joshua said. “I told him he shouldn’t leave boxing. He can do well. He’s fought two of the best and he can go a long way if he stays dedicated. It’s up to him.”
Joshua has won four in a row since back-to-back defeats by Usyk, having overcome Jermaine Franklin, Robert Helenius, Otto Wallin and now Ngannou.
The 34-year-old heavyweight from Watford paid tribute to his coach Ben Davison, and the support team he has around him.
“I’m still learning, I’m still hungry,” said Joshua. “Am I coming into my peak? It only takes one shot in the heavyweight division. I’m just pushing day by day and making the most of it.”
The article was published by TRIS DIXON
