Carl Frampton believes Tyson Fury’s stock has dropped after struggling against boxing debutant Francis Ngannou at Boulevard Hall in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on October 28.
WBC heavyweight titleholder Fury 34-0-1 (24) had his hands full against former UFC heavyweight champion Ngannou 0-1, finding himself on the canvas in the third round before working his way back into the fight courtesy of his jab to win a split decision by scores of 97-93, 96-95 and 95-96.
The 10-round non-title bout was supposed to be an easy hit out for Fury ahead of his mooted four-belt unification bout against WBA, WBO, IBF and Ring Magazine heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk 21-0 (14) but it proved to be anything but that.
Fury suffered a small cut to his forehead in the second round and the short turnaround time for the proposed December 23 date for the Usyk bout was given as the reason the highly anticipated matchup would not take place this year. A February date is now being worked on.
Fury’s performance has given reason to fans and pundits to reassess how the 35-year-old Brit will go against the 36-year-old Ukrainian southpaw who previously held all four major world championships at cruiserweight.
Retired former two-weight world champion Frampton says questions need to be asked of Fury but cautioned against writing off his chances against Usyk.
“I still have Fury as a favorite against Usyk,” Frampton told BBC Sport. “He obviously needs to be much better than he was in his last fight, which he will be. He didn’t let the boxing community down, but he’s probably upset and annoyed at himself because it was a poor performance.
“It seems he’s doing too much. Both guys were at the gala dinner [in Saudi Arabia] the night before the event, what’s that about? I wouldn’t have been doing that if I was fighting. I would have been resting, but we all know Fury is much better than what we saw and everyone is entitled to a bad performance once in a while.”
Frampton praised Ngannou, who impressed with his boxing ability and ring IQ throughout the bout.
“I couldn’t believe what I was watching at times. I expected Francis to look really wild and amateurish, novicey and be swinging from his feet, and he wasn’t,” Frampton said.
“He had a nice stylish stance, he looked like he had been boxing for a long time. He was very tough and powerful. Fury couldn’t work him out.
“It was a harder night than anyone anticipated. This isn’t me being the boxer slamming the MMA guys. Who in their rational mind would have thought Francis would’ve pushed Fury like that?”
Meanwhile, French-Cameroonian Ngannou, 37, wants a second shot at Fury after he faces Usyk to prove the first fight was not a fluke.
“I would be willing to wait [for Fury to fight Usyk]. I know that they are going to fight, they had a contract already, so they are going to fight sometime in February instead of December 23, which is my fault,” Ngannou said to TMZ Sports.
“I shouldn’t have cut him. He would’ve fought December 23 and maybe we would’ve run it back early next year.”
