Francis Ngannou 0-1 remains adamant that he won his boxing debut against WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury 34-0-1 (24) at the Boulevard Hall in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Saturday night.
The former UFC heavyweight champion surprised with his boxing ability and had Fury on the canvas in the third en route to split decision loss by scores of 95-94, 94-95 and 93-96.
Cameroon’s Ngannou, 37, believes the 35-year-old Brit knows deep down he did not deserve the win.
“If he’s being honest, he would say that I won that fight, I won that fight, there’s not a question about it, but even before getting here, I knew that if the fight would get to a decision, I’m not winning, not because I didn’t do good, but because I’m the new guy in the house,” Ngannou told ESPN.
His trainer Dewey Cooper agrees.
“I thought we won the fight with the knockdown,” Cooper said to Metro. “It was a back and forth fight but I felt like it was probably even on rounds and the knockdown should have given us the advantage – like the one judge had it, 95-94 is how I scored it. I even told Francis in the last round that he had to stay sharp, don’t let him steal the fight.
“So I thought we had won it closely but even losing this fight closely is a magnificent accomplishment.
“Everybody, [the media], everybody said we had no shot. Everybody said he was getting knocked out no matter what he do. But he dropped the champ. The prime, undefeated champ. His first fight out. He went 10 rounds with as much energy as the champ. I felt we won the fight by a round or two.
“But this is why boxing is going on a slight decline. Boxing is now a business disguised as a sport. We need to keep it real and make these decisions as transparent as possible. At the end of the day it didn’t go our way but I’m proud of Francis.”
Ngannou said he enjoyed the fight, taunting Fury in the ring after weeks of verbal from the WBC titleholder both online and at official pressers.
“When we got closer and touched gloves, he said ‘let me take you to school’. I’m like ‘you motherfucker, you are not taking me to school’,” Ngannou said.
“That’s why when I knocked him down, I was dancing in front of him, like ‘You a bad professor, motherfucker. You a bad professor. How is that school going? Who is taking who to school? Because to me, it looks like I’m the one taking you to school.’ That was the language that I was expressing at that time. Who was taking who to school?”
Fury was cut over the left eye in the second round and wore more shots than he would have liked, putting his mooted undisputed world title clash against WBA, WBO, IBF and Ring Magazine champion Oleksandr Usyk 21-0 (14) in Saudi Arabia on December 23 in jeopardy.
Ngannou said he came out relatively unscathed.
“I feel pretty good,” he said. “I wasn’t so busted up in the fight. I got hit a couple times but not too bad so I was able to manage not to get damage. So I feel pretty good. And regardless of the decision, personally I am satisfied with my performance.
“I know that I could have done better and I will go back and get better. But I really believe I didn’t come up short in this fight. I believe that I stood toe to toe with the number one boxer in the world for my first match, and I basically won the fight.”