MMA

Ngannou has sent the king of boxing down! Fury still won on points with his ears scraped. Theft and corruption, the stars of combat sports and beyond are clear

That was awesome. Duels between MMA stars and boxers in boxing have rarely ended other than badly for MMA. Francis Ngannou, who was expected to be handled gamely by Tyson Fury, was expected to face the bad guy. But the world boxing champion had his work cut out for him. According to many stars, the former UFC king was robbed.

Published

1 year ago

29. 10. 2023

Pavel Langr

The former UFC champion sent the king of boxing to the ground, yet lost

Francis Ngannou has never fought a boxing match in his life. Neither amateur nor professional. His career in combat sports is not very long despite his 37 years. Still, he’s done more in 10 years than many can do in a lifetime.

Since 2013, when his MMA career began, he has become a UFC champion, become one of the biggest stars of his sport, and even turned down the UFC and went to the PFL. To make matters worse, he managed to fulfill his dream of fighting in boxing. And not just any dream.

In his debut, he challenged a boxing champion and one of the best boxers in history who had never known the bitterness of defeat. Tyson Fury was a huge favorite. Ngannou may have a hard punch, but technically and in quality he should have been much worse off.

But when the fight started late on Saturday night, we were treated to a much different spectacle than expected. What would Conor McGregor give for a similar performance in a duel with Floyd Mayweather, who was by then retired to boot.

Ngannou was superb from the start. He landed hard bombs, was more accurate, even sent Fury down in the third round. It was as if it was only at that moment that Gypsy King began to realize that this wasn’t going to be as easy as he probably expected.

It’s worth noting that the Englishman was sent down for only the seventh time in his career.

Ngannou Knocked Down Tyson Fury #furyvsngannou #RiyadhSeason #RiyadhSeason2023 pic.twitter.com/NMJ9d2cegP
— GOLADA TV (@GoladaTv) October 28, 2023

The world king of boxing didn’t look too good in the fight, but he did look a little fresher than the Predator from Cameroon in the second half. He still managed to threaten. In the eighth round in particular, he landed several punches that Fury didn’t like very much.

It’s worth noting that Fury often tied the fight up. In addition, at one point he committed an elbow strike, which Ngannou did not react to. As the end of the fight approached, talk on social media began about the sensation.

Whatever the outcome of the fight, the former UFC champion had put on a much better performance than expected. He just lost on a split decision. One judge saw him win 95-94, but a second judge saw Fury win by the same ratio, and a third judge scored the fight 96-93 in favor of the Englishman.

Was Ngannou robbed? The stars are clear

As soon as the match was over, all sorts of reactions started to appear on social media. But many of them were almost identical in content. At least in the basics. Many stars agree that there was a grand theft. Even one English one, namely former footballer Gary Lineker.

We’ve just seen a robbery. https://t.co/Cn9KpxBHOD
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) October 28, 2023

Francis Ngannou was supposed to be the winner, even according to stars from the world of combat sports. For example, according to former UFC champion Henry Cejudo or Gilbert Burns, a popular fighter who has fought Kamaru Usman and Khamzat Chimaev.

Even before the results were announced, Cejudo was writing about the biggest surprise in combat sports history, which made his disappointment all the more evident. UFC middleweight belt holder Sean Strickland wrote only a few dots on the result.

“I’m done with boxing. The most corrupt sport in the whole world. Absolute nonsense. This is why I will never buy a PPV again,” reads a light-hearted translation of UFC fighter Renato Moicano’ s statement towards the Ngannou vs Fury fight.

Nate Diaz, UFC legend, and Jiri Prochazka’s closest rival Alex Pereira also sided with the Predator, praising the performance of the former UFC heavyweight king.

“Almost! Don’t ever question this man again. Francis Ngannou is one hell of a beast,” praised the performance of MMA star legend Max Holloway.

Interesting, then, is the result reached by Verdict MMA, a website that specializes in scoring fights in combat sports. According to him, Ngannou should have won, albeit very narrowly. Specifically, 95.06 – 94.6.

That just goes to show how evenly matched this fight was. If anyone doubted the Predator, they must now regret it. He was able to keep up with the best boxer on the planet and almost beat him. What’s even more disgusting is how the UFC is treating him now. Will he add more big boxing matches?