WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury 34-0-1 (24) remains in damage control after being held to a split decision win over boxing debutant Francis Ngannou in their 10-round non-title bout at Boulevard Hall in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Saturday night.
Arriving back in the UK with a black eye, Fury offered up his middle finger to the waiting cameras and defended the scoring of the bout that saw him escape with a split deicison victory by scores of 94-95, 95-94 and 96-93.
“I’m not a boxing judge, but I can clearly see he didn’t win the fight by the punch stats,” said Fury, who was dropped by a left hook in the third round from the former UFC heavyweight champion.
“And if he would’ve won the fight, they would’ve given it to him, wouldn’t they? It wasn’t my own show, was it? We were both away fighter?”
After the knockdown, Fury relied on his jab to work his way back into the fight. According to CompuBox, Fury landed 28 jabs and 24 power punches from the fourth round on. After 10 rounds Ngannou had landed five more power punches than Fury.
Fury landed 17 more jabs than Ngannou, which seemed to be what nipped the fight for him.
Before the fight Fury boasted that he could beat Cameroon’s Ngannou, 37, even if he was drunk.
“I once stated that I could drink 15 pints of beer and still beat Anthony Joshua in a fight,” Fury told TNT Sports pundit and former world champion Carl Frampton.
“So I’m going to go on record and say this – I could drink 25 pints of beer and still beat Francis Ngannou in a fight.”
But after his close call on the weekend the 35-year-old Brit claimed he was always anticipating a tough physical fight from Ngannou.
“You can’t take anything away from Francis Ngannou. He’s a good fighter and he gave me a very good fight and that was it,” Fury told Boxing King Media.
“I trained very well. I prepared very good. I don’t think I have an excuse or anything. It’s boxing. Some days you have good days, some days you don’t. You crack on and you continue, keep moving forward.
“Listen, usually when you get the media saying it’s a mismatch, it’s not worth watching and all that, usually you’re in for a tough night.
“If I wasn’t training as hard as I did, I probably wouldn’t have gotten through that fight. He punches hard but it was a bit like a hook on the back of the head, the knockdown in round whatever it was, three, but apart from that he didn’t get very much else.
“He did very well. That’s it, really. It’s boxing. You can’t be the best version of yourself every time but it’s about keep going and on to the next one, which is Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed championship.”
Fury was expected to announce he would be facing WBA, WBO, IBF and Ring Magazine heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk 21-0 (14) in Saudi Arabia on December 23 after the Ngannou fight, but that bout has been pushed back to next year after he suffered a small nick about his left eye.
The four-belt unification bout is likely to take place in the first quarter of 2024.
