Francis Ngannou claims he was affected by the late start time of his fight against Anthony Joshua . Ngannou took on former two-time heavyweight world champion Joshua in
Saudi Arabia earlier this month - but was brutally knocked out in the second round. The fight didn't start until 3am local time - and Ngannou claims he felt the affects. "Listen, I think we both fight at 3am," Ngannou told The MMA Hour . "It's not like I fought at 3 a.m. and he fought at like midnight or something. We both fought at 3am. What I think, something that's happened is that they get me to the arena very early. Like 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. right? "They come to the locker around 1 and Joshua [was just arriving around 1]. 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. But for the fight, at least two hours beforehand. They do this kind of trick to get you tired. I was like cool, I was like, 'Bro, it's OK.' 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 was dropped in the first round by Joshua but survived to hear the bell for the end of the session. He was sent to the canvas again in the second round and although he recovered again, he was soon knocked unconscious by the Brit. And Ngannou admitted his memory of the fight is patchy. "When the fight started, I was never there," he added. "Even the first minute, I remember when I get hit, the first punch, I was more surprised about the fact that I’m falling down from that punch than the punch itself. You know, sometimes even in sparring, you take some punch and you’re like, ‘Damn, this guy hit hard,’ but you’re all right. "I take a punch, the first punch, I was awake, but I didn’t really feel it. I find myself down, I’m like, ‘Man, what’s going on?’ I’m being count [for getting knocked down], so, okay, let’s take your time to get back up.” Take my time, get back up, and things were still a little blurry. "I went to the corner, and we started to talk, and they were talking to me, I was listening. My memory and my vision and everything kept going. I never came back from the stool. I don’t remember from when I came back from the stool to go back to the second round…From there from the stool in between the round, I wasn’t there anymore."