By Jake Tiernan: A bitter & testy-sounding Tyson Fury says Francis Ngannou “clearly didn’t win” and that if he had, the judges would have given it to him.
Fury looked like he was off the leash, ready to snap at an interviewer when asked simple questions about his fight with Ngannou. Fury’s irritable behavior was most evident when told that the boxing public saw Ngannou as the winner.
At that point, Fury looked like he was boiling over, causing him to lash out, claiming Francis only won two rounds, and if he had deserved the victory, the judges would have given it to him.
You could just see the stewing rage that was lying below the surface of Fury while being asked about his poor performance, getting worked over by the former UFC champion, and needing the judges to save him.
Unfortunately, that’s not how it works in boxing when you have a famous superstar facing a less popular fighter. We’ve all seen it. The famous fighter appears to lose but is given a controversial decision over the B-side opponent.
It was interesting to watch how Fury could barely disguise his seething anger mixed with disappointment after his awful performance, losing at least five rounds and deserving a loss to the novice Ngannou.
Fury looks like he’s beginning to suspect that he’s washed up and no longer the fighter he was years ago. The 35-year-old ‘Gypsy King’ Fury is clearly at the end of his career and will likely lose his next fight for the undisputed championship against Oleksandr Usyk unless he gets the kind of judging we saw last Saturday night.
Ngannou rounds
2
3 – knockdown
6
8 – Fury hurt
10
Obviously, given the huge difference in popularity between the two, it’s difficult to believe that the judges would have given Ngannou the decision victory over a fighter as popular as WBC/lineal heavyweight champion Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs).
“He won the 10-8 round and maybe one other round, but other than that, I was just boxing, and he couldn’t close the distance down,” said Tyson Fury to iFL TV about his ‘win’ over Francis Ngannou.
“I’m not a judge, but I can clearly see he didn’t win the fight by the punch stats. If he did win the fight, they would have given it to him. It wasn’t my own show. We’re both away fighters,” said Tyson.
Obviously, Fury is NOT a judge, but he’s also not willing to give full credit to his conquering opponent, Ngannou. For Fury to be saying that he only deserved to win two rounds, he’s either intentionally being obtuse, or he’s clueless.
In reality, Ngannou fought well enough to win five rounds, and with the knockdown round in the third, he should have won the fight. Two judges gave it to Fury by the scores 96-93 and 95-95 while the third had it to Ngannou 95-94.
More importantly, the boxing world saw Ngannou winning, which hurt Fury’s credibility & popularity. That’s much more important than receiving a superficial victory, which is viewed as a robbery by the worldwide public.
If Fury had any sense, he would insist on giving Ngannou an immediate rematch because he needs to prove to the fans that he’s the better man and not someone who depends on the judges to give him a victory he didn’t deserve. To walk away with this tainted win hurts Fury’s popularity, and that’s not a good thing.
Fury’s win over Ngannou was meaningless because the fans saw it as an example of a famous fighter receiving favorable scores due to his status rather than what he did in the ring.
I had to get off the floor to win; no excuses. I’ve done my job, I got paid, happy days, and I’m going on to the undisputed. There are no excuses. I did the best I could,” said Fury, showing no emotion while he mouthed these words.
“They’ll sort it out when they sort it out. Until that day, I’m not interested,” said Fury when asked if he thinks the fight with Oleksandr Usyk will take place on December 23rd or at a later date. “I’m onto the next one now, and I’ll get paid and then onto the next one after that.
“I’m fighting Usyk next. Whenever it is, it is, and whenever it’s not, it’s not. No biggy,” said Fury.
