The world champion in the most prestigious WBC version, the British Tyson Fury, survived the incredibly good boxing of the debutant Francis Ngannou and won the match, which threatened to be the biggest surprise in the history of boxing, by overvoting.
Fury, the undefeated holder of one of the sport's most prestigious titles, narrowly avoided a first defeat against a 37-year-old opponent who had never boxed professionally before, but went all 10 rounds.
Nganu threw the Brit on the pathos of the ring in the third round with a left hook, but then the 35-year-old, self-proclaimed "King of the Gypsies" managed to recover in the next 40 seconds, and in the fourth he was incomparably better, realizing that he had not met a naive rival.
"It was definitely not in my script," Fury said after the two judges gave him the win 96-93 and 95-94. The third judge scored 95-94 in favor of the Cameroonian-French fighter.
"He's a hell of a fighter and a hell of a better boxer than we thought he'd be. He's a tricky man and a good puncher and I have a lot of respect for him. He gave me one of my toughest fights in the last 10 years," said Fury, who is 23. In December, he expects a match for the absolute champion with the Ukrainian Alexander Usik, the owner of three other prestigious belts, IBF, WBA and WBO, that's why...
"There is no clause for a rematch with Nagano, but I want to box with him again, but let's wait after the fight with Usik, which will decide the best,
Usik, who was in Saudi Arabia to watch his future opponent, said he was ready.
Francis gave up the heavyweight belt in the UFC, and since January, as a free man, he decided to try boxing. And he earned, as much as 18 million in the whole MMA, he received only four million dollars. He has never received over 600.000 for a match before.
"Let Fury thank the two judges for winning the match! My training camp was only three and a half months and I came into this with an injury. But I don't want excuses. I'll see what I can do next to improve my boxing so I can come back even better. Now I know I can do this.., get ready. The wolf is in the house."
And indeed, only passivity during a large part of the match cost Nganu the triumph, since he hit incomparably harder but less. More precisely, the King of the Gypsies was in pain, and the Wolf was getting kicked too often.
"Unusual fight, Tyson didn't hurt Nganu! Nganu landed a beautiful punch that caught Fury. Tyson is a 'cool' guy. He has a strong chin. And, my God, how strong is Nganu. Heavyweight boxing is exciting, especially in the ring, ” said former UFC champion Conor McGregor, who paved the way for MMA fighters in the ring.
Fury attempted 71 times, hit 39, and Ngan only 59, of which he was successful 22 times.
"I'm so proud of Francis! He's the real champion of the night," announced Iron Mike Tyson, who was preparing Ngannou for the bout.
Bonus video:
