By Charles Brun: Gareth A. Davis is blaming the inept performance by lineal heavyweight champion Tyson Fury last weekend on him underestimating Francis Ngannou rather than it being a sign of advanced age, physical decline from his wars with Deontay Wilder, and living the life of one of the pampered caviar-eating rich & famous.
Gareth sounds like one of the many adoring, servile Fury fans who are in denial about the physical determination that has set in with him. The fact is, Fury’s not a spring chicken at this stage of his career and now resembles a middle-aged guy with a dad’s body who happens to be swimming in the dough.
It looked to Charles Brun like a classic example of an old fat guy getting his backside handed to him by a physically younger, stronger, and hungrier fighter, who had the style to take away the mauling tactics that Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) has relied on in the last four years to win his fights.
Fury is filthy rich, rolling in dough, with a net worth that is estimated to be in the $150 million range, and it’s likely hovering now at $200M after the payday he got against Ngannou last Saturday night from the Saudi cash that was showered on top of him from was supposed to be a simple expedition-esque type of professional boxing match.
Did Fury underestimate Ngannou?
“Psychologically, Tyson Fury probably underestimated him. It was the worst performance I’ve seen from Tyson Fury in a very, very long time, and it will have sharpened him,” said Gareth A. Davies to talkSport Boxing, blaming Tyson Fury’s dismal performance against Francis Ngannou on underestimating him last Saturday night.
Fury looked like he was as ready as he could be for the fight, but his body betrayed him. The old mind was as sharp as a tack, but the flesh was weak, having given way to accelerated decrepitude.
Groveling fans unwilling to see the truth about Fury’s deterioration have put their heads in the sand, not wanting to take a good hard look at him to understand that he’s NOT the guy that beat 39-year-old Wladimir Klitschko by a close decision earlier in his career in 2015.
“At the pinnacle of his career, he managed to get through that fight,” said Gareth. “Yes, he’s [Ngannou] in boxing skills, but he’s not a novice in being a striker with incredible power. It was his [Fury] worst moment in the ring.
“It took something out of him,” said Gareth about Fury’s knockdown by Ngannou taking something out of him, resulting in poor performance for the remainder of the fight.”
Fury didn’t look good from the jump last Saturday, and the knockdown in the this had NOTHING to do with it. You could see it from the moment the fight was signed that he didn’t look well physically.
Look at Fury’s physical appearance from his third fight with Deontay Wilder in 2021 and compare it to how he looked last Saturday. It was like night and day.
Fury still looked relatively youthful for the Wilder trilogy match, but last Saturday night, he resembled an old, flabby long-haul trucker, making a living transporting goods around.
“You can argue that Ngannou just kept his shape and tried to walk him down,” said Gareth. “Fury was totally off-color on the night. Lack of timing, 11-month absence, probably didn’t take him seriously, had a half an eye on Usyk.
“So, all these things factors played into the poorest performance we’ve seen in him. People have poor nights. I always thought Ngannou was dangerous. The fact that he [Fury] is a great boxer compared to Ngannou got him through,” said Gareth.
Fury’s performance was embarrassing
“That’s all good, Gareth, but it’s embarrassing for Fury, it’s embarrassing,” said Ade Oladipo about Fury. “Even if it was his worst, it was embarrassing. He’s fighting someone who has never boxed in his life in the professional ring. How Fury didn’t even make adjustments in order to get the job done, I’m still astounded.”
At this point in Fury’s life, this is the kind of thing that we’re going to see from him in his fights, and there’s not much that can be done about it.
Factors affecting Fury
- Age
- Ring deterioration
- Huge wealth
- Weight gain
- Inactivity
- Lack of ambition
“We’ve seen him get hit by Wilder, get knocked down, get up, and still make the adjustments,” said Ade. “I feel like we’re being kind to Fury here. I think I gave Ngannou zero percent chance to beat Fury.
“No one who has never boxed before should get close to beating the lineal heavyweight champion, the best champion of this generation. The fact that the world has gone crazy about this suggests that it shouldn’t have happened,” said Ade.
What’s surprising about all this is the absence of Francis Ngannou on Ring Magazine’s top 10 heavyweights in their new rankings.
Surely, Ngannou should be in there instead of lesser guys like Joseph Parker, Ocotto Wallin, or the recently beaten Joe Joyce. How on earth is Parker still in the top 10 after getting blasted out by Joyce last year?
Ngannou not included in Ring Magazine heavyweight rankings
Chammpion: Oleksandr Usyk
1. Tyson Fury
2. Deontay Wilder
3. Anthony Joshua
4. Zhilei Zhang
5. Joseph Parker
6. Filip Hrgovic
7. Jared Anderson
8. Joe Joyce
9. Frank Sanchez
10. Otto Wallin
