Kamaru Usman advises Francis Ngannou not to rush return

Kamaru Usman wants to see fellow former UFC champion Francis Ngannou take some time off after suffering his first-career knockout loss.

Ngannou (0-2) was knocked out cold in Round 2 of his boxing match against Anthony Joshua (28-3) last Friday at Kingdom Arena in Saudi Arabia.

Usman, who Ngannou revealed lent him $200,000 before his final UFC fight, wants to see his good friend recover before competing again.

“When he feels up to it, me and my brother will have a conversation,” Usman said on his “Pound 4 Pound” podcast with Henry Cejudo. “We texted a little bit, but we’ll have a conversation, and my advice for him would just be take his time. At the end of the day, no one can tell you when that time is, that appropriate time is because he’s a professional. Just like I am, just like you are, he’s a professional. He knows his clock. He knows his time.

“He knows what he’s capable of being able to handle. So I would say just take your time. You don’t need to rush back because as competitors, as professionals, what we do do is we want it back ASAP. We want to get that back in blood as soon as possible. We lose, we don’t like to wallow in that feeling of a loss, we don’t like to be defeated, so we want to get it back right away and get back in the win column, and that’s a mark of a champion.”

After his loss to Joshua, Ngannou said he will likely compete in MMA next but still intends to box.