AMIR KHAN has backed Anthony Joshua to knock out Francis Ngannou and force Tyson Fury to the negotiation table.
Joshua faces Ngannou on March 8 in Saudi Arabia in the same Riyadh venue where Fury was dropped by the MMA star in October.
GettyAnthony Joshua and Francis Ngannou ahead of their March 8 bout[/caption]
GettyTyson Fury fought Ngannou in his last bout[/caption]
The Gypsy King needed a controversial points victory to escape with his unbeaten record and reputation barely intact.
So if AJ can make mincemeat of Ngannou, it could rejuvenate demand for a Battle of Britain bout with Fury.
Khan told SunSport: “If he gets the knock out or outboxes Ngannou and makes it look so easy, I think it will be a big statement in the world of boxing, especially the heavyweight division.
“There’s still that talk that the Joshua and Fury fight should still happen so this is a good chance for Joshua to show how good he is.”
Fury, 35, got off the floor in round three to escape with a disputed split-decision verdict in his favour.
And he now faces Oleksandr Usyk, 37, on May 18 after a cut sustained in sparring forced him to postpone from February 17.
Ngannou, 37, meanwhile turned his attention to Joshua, 34, after he was denied an immediate rematch with Fury.
But AJ goes into the bout with ten rounds of valuable video evidence to study as Khan, 37, backed his fellow Brit to get the job done in style.
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He said: “Obviously, Ngannou surprised us all because that massive fight he had with Tyson Fury and how close the fight was, it could have gone either way.
“I don’t know if Tyson took his foot off the gas, not expecting what he came to do.
“But the fight with Joshua, Joshua’s gonna know now how hard he gave a fight to Fury.
“So I’m sure he’s going to be on his A-game. He’s not going to make the same mistakes and he’s going to train very hard for this fight.
“Because like I said, maybe Tyson overlooked him and thought it was going to be a walk in the park but really he surprised us all.
“So I think this is only going to make Joshua train even harder. But, I got Joshua winning.
“I think it could be a mid-round, mid-fight knockout maybe four, five, six rounds. Or, it could be a 12-round decision.”
SunSportAmir Khan speaks to SunSport in Saudi Arabia[/caption]