Ngannou, who is 0-2 in pro boxing after losing a split decision to Tyson Fury, then suffering a vicious KO at the hands of Anthony Joshua, is eyeing a bout with a third former world heavyweight champion, and explained that the inherent danger of facing someone with one-shot KO power gives him the motivation to step back through the ropes to compete again.
“Yeah (I’m passionate about fighting Deontay Wilder) because there’s an 80 percent chance that somebody will go to sleep,” he told Sportsbook Review.
“It will be one or the other, you just have to bang.”
Ngannou acknowledged that Wilder’s recent performances haven’t been in keeping with his “Bronze Bomber” moniker, but he knows that that punch power is still there, and that a bout between the pair will bring the ego out in the pair of them to prove who has the bigger punch power.
“Maybe not in his past two fights, but Deontay Wilder is known as a guy that knocks everybody out or tries to knock you out,” he said.
“I’m going against that guy, and I myself can knock someone out. Deep inside me there is a little bit of ego, like I know I hit harder. I’m saying from my experience that we will have that ego that we both want to prove ‘No, it’s me (who hits harder).’
“Who is the biggest hitter between you and Deontay? Those sorts of conversations are popping around a little bit and even though you think you don’t care about it, it sticks somewhere in your mind.”
Regardless of what happens with a potential bout with Wilder, one bout Ngannou said he won’t be pursuing is a rematch with Anthony Joshua, with the former UFC champion accusing Joshua’s team of dirty tactics in the lead-up to their fight, where he was brutally knocked out by AJ in Riyadh.
“I don’t think there will be fairness (in a rematch) because there will always be the same people organising the fight,” said Ngannou.
“The same thing could probably happen. Would it be fair? Would it be anything different in the rematch? Could they guarantee that? It’s a dirty game.
“I was in the locker room for over four hours. Now, looking back at it, I’m like, ‘What the hell was that?’ I have never seen something like that.
“But that was on purpose. I got in the arena around 11pm and I was told by a producer that the fight would be around 1am. But AJ arrived at the arena at 1am. If we were supposed to fight at 1am, he should have been there at the same time as me because we were fighting together. It was f**ked up.
“It is not (about) fighting AJ again. It’s about not being in that circle.”
