On March 08, Francis Ngannou lost to Anthony Joshua by a lightning ko. Despite this defeat, the Cameroonian can count on the support of his friend Israel Adesanya. The Nigerian has nothing but praise for the former UFC champion. He told Ariel Helwani's The MMA Hour show.

"I spoke to Kamaru (Usman), he said it best, he said to me, 'Yo, for us, he's Superman'. That's Superman. So seeing Superman hurt like that really disturbed me. It upset me. Even if it had happened to Joshua, I would have felt the same way. I don't want to see them go through that, it was a bad, bad knockout," claims Israel Adesanya. He adds. " It doesn't change anything, I'm thinking of Francis. You'll always be Superman to me, and he's still the man, he's still the guy who played his own game, regardless of what happened in his life and career. "