Anthony Joshua regained his slew of heavyweight titles the last time he entered the ring as the significantly lighter fighter.

The former two-time unified heavyweight titlist will give away 20 pounds ahead of his scheduled ten-round bout versus Francis Ngannou. Joshua (27-3, 24 knockouts), The Ring’s No.2-rated heavyweight, weighed 252.4 pounds. Ngannou (0-1), a former UFC heavyweight champion tipped the scales at 272.6 pounds.

Joshua-Ngannou will headline a ten-fight show, with select bouts to air on DAZN Pay-Per-View and PPV.com this Friday, beginning at 1:00 p.m. ET from Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Joshua was 255 ¼ pounds for his twelve-round points win over Jermaine Franklin last April 1 at The O2 in London.

The win kicked off his most active stretch since his first major title win; Friday will mark his fourth fight in just 49 weeks. He was 250 pounds in a highlight-reel, seventh-round knockout of Robert Helenius last August 12 at the same venue. Joshua weighed 251 pounds in a fifth-round stoppage of Otto Wallin last

December 23 at the same site that will host Friday’s event.

Joshua has won three straight since a pair of defeats to The Ring heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs) to end his second WBA/IBF/WBO heavyweight title reign.

Ngannou entered boxing after he earned a reputation as one of the biggest UFC heavyweight punchers of all time. He weighed 257 pounds for his final mixed martial arts fight, a five-round, unanimous decision over Ciryl Gane last January.

Ngannou—a Cameroonian-French heavyweight who lives in Las Vegas—weighed 272 pounds for his pro boxing debut, a split decision defeat to WBC titlist Tyson Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs), No. 1 at HVY, last October to kick off ‘Riyadh Season.’ Fury was knocked down in the third round but Ngannou was unable to retain his early lead as he came within one round of a shocking upset in their non-title fight.

Below are the weights for the remaining undercard bouts.
Zhilei Zhang (26-1-1, 21 KOs; No. 3 at HVY), Bloomfield, New Jersey via Zhoukou, China, 291.6 pounds vs. Joseph Parker (34-3, 23KOs, No. 4 at HVY), Auckland, New Zealand, 247.6 pounds—12 rounds, for Zhang’s interim WBO heavyweight title.
Rey Vargas (36-1, 22 KOs, No. 3 at 126), Otumba, Mexico, 125 pounds vs. Nick Ball (19-0, 11 KOs; No. 10 at 126), Liverpool, Merseyside, UK, 126 pounds—12 rounds, for Vargas’ WBC junior lightweight title.
Israil Madrimov (9-0-1, KOs, No. 6 at 154), Khiva, Uzbekistan, 153.6 pounds vs. Magomed Kurbanov (25-0, 13 KOs), Ekaterinburg, Russia, 153.6 pounds—12 rounds, vacant WBA junior middleweight title.
Mark Chamberlain (14-0, 10 KOs), Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK, 134.6 pounds vs. Gavin Gwynne (17-2-1, 5 KOs), Treharris, Wales, UK, 134.6 pounds—12 rounds, lightweight.
Jack McGann (9-0-1, 6 KOs), Liverpool, 153.4 pounds vs. Louis Greene (16-4, 1 KO), Strood, Kent, UK, 153.2 pounds—10 rounds, junior middleweight.
Justis Huni (8-0, 4 KOs), Brisbane, Australia, 243.2 pounds vs. Kevin Lerena (30-2, 14 KOs), Johannesburg, South Africa, 232.4 pounds—10 rounds, heavyweight
Roman Fury (3-0, 1 KO), Manchester, England, 224 pounds vs. Martin Svarc (2-0, 1KO), Sternberk, Czech Republic, 225.6 pounds—4 rounds, heavyweight.
Ziyad Almaayouf (4-0, 1 KO), Los Angeles via Riyadh, 144.4 pounds vs. Christian Lopez (14-35-2, 12 KOs), Bratislava, Slovakia via Culiacan, Mexico, 142 pounds—6 rounds, junior welterweight.
Andrii Novytskyi (9-0, 8 KOs), Los Angeles via Odessa, Ukraine, 239.4pounds vs. Juan Torres (11-5-1, 4 KOs), Cypress, Texas, 255.6 pounds—8 rounds, heavyweight.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for The Ring and vice president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.
Follow @JakeNDaBox

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