Anthony Joshua is “not at all” looking to compare how he performs March 8 with how Tyson Fury fought when he faced Francis Ngannou on October 28.

The former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion is in the extreme minority, of course, because virtually everyone who will watch Joshua-Ngannou will want to see if Joshua can defeat Ngannou more convincingly than Fury beat him, if at all. Ngannou dropped Fury with a left hook in the third round, but Fury got up and boxed his way to a heavily scrutinized, split-decision win in their 10-round, non-title fight at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Joshua didn’t predict a knockout of Ngannou during or after their press conference Monday in London. The big British superstar did note, though, that he has knocked out every opponent that both he and Fury fought.

“I like to hurt people, definitely,” Joshua told DAZN’s broadcast team following the press conference. “Definitely, I really do. I really do. But if you look at it, every opponent that me and Fury got in common, I’ve knocked them out – every opponent, or I’ve stopped them. Yeah, every opponent.

“So, I just do what I need to do. I’ve never been in competition with him anyway in that sense. But if you are talking in facts and stats, everyone that we’ve fought that’s similar I’ve ended up breaking their face or knocking them out. So, we’ll see what happens.”

Oleksandr Usyk and Francis Ngannou will be the fifth and sixth common opponents for Fury and Joshua as professionals.

Ukraine’s Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs), who twice beat Joshua on points in 12-round title fights, will face Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) in a bout that, barring a draw or no-contest, will crown boxing’s first fully unified heavyweight champion of the four-belt era February 17 at Kingdom Arena. Joshua (27-3, 24 KOs) and Ngannou (0-1) will square off a little less than three weeks later in another pay-per-view main event at Kingdom Arena.

Because Fury will fight Usyk first, Joshua won’t have knocked out every opponent they’ve both boxed as pros by the time Joshua squares off against Ngannou.

Joshua stopped Swedish southpaw Otto Wallin (26-2, 14 KOs, 1 NC) after the fifth round of his most recent bout, a 12-rounder December 23 at Kingdom Arena. Wallin went the distance with Fury in September 2019, when Fury fought through a nasty gash over his right eye to win a 12-round unanimous decision at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

The 2012 Olympic gold medalist previously stopped Wladimir Klitschko in the 11th round of their unforgettable slugfest in April 2017 at Wembley Stadium in London. Joshua dropped Klitschko in the fifth round, got up from a sixth-round knockdown and sent Klitschko to the canvas twice more in the 11th round of a bout Joshua led on two scorecards through 10 rounds (96-93, 95-93, 93-95).

Klitschko (64-5, 53 KOs), who was 41 when he fought Joshua, retired after suffering that second straight defeat.

Fury upset Klitschko by unanimous decision in a comparatively boring bout for Klitschko’s IBF, IBO, WBA and WBO championships in November 2015 at ESPRIT Arena in Duesseldorf, Germany. Fury defeated Ukraine’s Klitschko by scores of 116-111, 115-112 and 115-112 and ended his 9½-year IBF/IBO championship reign.

Joshua and Klitschko both stopped England’s Dillian Whyte (29-3, 19 KOs) inside the distance.

Joshua viciously knocked out Whyte with a right uppercut in the seventh round of the bout before Joshua won his first heavyweight title. Six-plus years after Joshua knocked out Whyte in December 2015 at O2 Arena in London, Fury also dropped and stopped Whyte by landing a right uppercut in the sixth round of their April 2022 fight for Fury’s WBC belt at Wembley Stadium.

Earlier in their careers, Fury and Joshua both beat American Kevin Johnson.

Joshua stopped Johnson in the second round of their May 2015 fight at O2 Arena. Johnson went the distance with Fury, who defeated him unanimously in their 12-round bout by scores of 119-108, 119-108, and 119-110 in December 2012 at The SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.