I have decided to come out of my boxing writing hibernation to write about the controversial crossover fight between Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou that took place on ESPN PPV last Saturday. For those who have not seen or read anything about the fight, it was a controversial decision. Fury was cut, knocked down in the third round and fortunate to come home with a decision that is raising a fuss online. I would like to precede my analysis of the fight by saying I have made predictions that turned out to be very wrong when it comes to boxing; boy was I way off on this pick. I believed going in that this was going to play out like Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor where Fury would play with Ngannou, Ngannou would gas, and Fury would pick him apart and end it when he felt like it. To my surprise, none of this happened and it was an entertaining fight that exceeded expectations.
I grappled purchasing the PPV in the first place seeing this largely as a circus show fight with a predetermined outcome. Fury came out early and boxed but did not take total control of the fight. Ngannou was game from the start and it was clear after the initial six minutes that this was going to go rounds. In the third round Fury was dropped by a left hook during an exchange. Fury shook off the punch, got on his toes and showed he was okay. The fight remained competitive down the stretch until the final bell. I watched the fight as a fan boy and drunk for that matter so I did not score the fight the night of. When the fight got into the second half I began to score some of the rounds and had Ngannou win the 7th, 8th, and 10th round along with round three which was 10-8. Going by that math, Fury was at a maximum 95 points on the cards. Fury was announced the winner by split decision and there have been a lot of robbery calls and people clamoring for a rematch or at the very least another big fight for Francis. I hesitated calling it a robbery as I had not fully scored the fight, tonight I gave it a revisit.
My Scorecard
| Round | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Final |
| Fury | 10 | 10 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 95 |
| Ngannou | 9 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 94 |
Was this Fight a Robbery
As you can see I scored the fight for Fury, in my eyes this fight is not a robbery. One thing about this fight I will make clear from a scoring standpoint is that there were not many clear rounds. The judges were only unanimous on rounds 3, 5, 6, 8 and 9 leaving half the fight disagreed upon by the judges. I scored the same way as the judges on the agreed upon rounds and also felt Fury clearly won the first round behind his jab and a couple of overhand rights that connected. The closest rounds in my view are rounds 2, 4, and 10 and are the swing rounds that decided this fight. Don’t agree with me, check out Eye on the Ring, a fan site for fight scoring and there are plenty of Fury scores. I don’t want to come across as arrogant with my opinion but I believe the people crying foul here did not score the fight. They saw a closer than expected fight and at the end decided Francis won. I also watched round 2 and 4 twice as I felt they were the toughest rounds to score. I scored both to Fury on each watch but would not argue if they went the other way. My card would flip to a Ngannou 95-94 win by changing just one of these rounds. So while I don’t consider this a robbery, I don’t consider it a clear cut victory either.
The Judges
Juan Carlos Pelayon, Ed Garner and Alan Krebs were the judges tasked with scoring this fight. If they don’t ring a bell it’s because they are not consistently involved in huge fights. They are not Dave Moretti, Steve Weisfeld, Glen Trowbridge, Jerry Roth or Glenn Feldman. Scrolling on Boxrec, Pelayon and Krebs both have over 600 fights judged but are a little skinny on title fights. Krebs and Garner are not from commissions with big boxing shows as Krebs is from Washington state and Garner is from British Columbia Canada. This is not an insult or attack on these judges but I think it should be pointed out.
Pelayon had the fight scored the widest in favor of Fury at 96-93. We disagreed on round 2, 7 and 10. Garner was the judge who gave it to Ngannou giving him the first round which I strongly disagree with, gave Ngannou the 4th and surprisingly gave Fury round 7. Krebs and I scored the fight identically at 95-94 awarding the same rounds.
Analysis
My big take away from the first viewing was that Tyson Fury’s timing looked off and Ngannou was not bullied in the clinch like Deontay Wilder. Ngannou impressed me with his disciplined game plan that he stuck to and showed many different dimensions to his boxing. Was this a fluke or was this a sign of things to come for Ngannou? Watching this fight a second time I was amazed by the replay value from an entertainment standpoint. This was a good fight, it wasn’t Ali and Frazier but it was a good back and forth contest. Tyson Fury was on his game early and boxed well behind his jab and long reach. Ngannou was difficult early as Fury went southpaw to change looks in the second round and Ngannou switched with him and was defensively sound.
Fury hit the deck in the third round with plenty of time remaining. The night of and on reviewing, I don’t feel that Fury was rocked by the punch but was out of position and caught. He broke his fall with his left hand and got up without much difficulty. He was soon back on his toes shaking off any signs of being hurt before the bell to end the round. The fight which had an exhibition feel to it began to heat up a little more. Fury resorted to trying to wrestle more and Ngannou was able to manhandle him inside even pushing Fury to the ropes and nearly to the canvas. Fury got on his toes and tried to do his usual feints and jabs but could not effectively open up his offense to land combinations or hurt Ngannou.
Despite Ngannou exceeding expectations and Fury looking lackluster, I still felt Fury was well in front after 6 completed rounds. Francis did his best work in round 7 and 8 as he became the aggressor in these rounds. Ngannou played counter puncher in the early rounds but he held the center of the ring and came after Tyson in these two rounds. Outside of the left hook in round 3, Francis scored his best punches in this six minute span and caught Fury’s attention with two lefts out of the southpaw stance. The fight was tightening up with only two rounds to go. Round 9 was not the most action packed round but Fury edged it. Round 10 was close, neither guy went for broke as they were fatigued.
Did Fury Take this Seriously?
After the fight Tyson Fury said he had a thirteen week training camp and trained hard for this fight. Fury’s body looked soft, he seemed to fatigue in just a ten rounder, and his timing looked off. These are the hallmarks of a bad camp. Fury was a career heavy 277 pounds and he looked flabby. This all sounds bad, but I believe Tyson that he took the fight seriously. He has not made excuses or wavered in his post fight interviews or comments since and has admirably given Ngannou his credit. Also, the weight may be his heaviest but he weighed the same against Wilder in their third fight. Did he overlook Ngannou? He may have, he does have the Oleksandr Usyk fight on the horizon and maybe he took for granted his string of victories and assumed a debuting MMA fighter couldn’t beat him. I can say that he potentially entered with an exhibition mindset as you could see him stick out his tongue and talk to Ngannou and at the end of round 1 and after round 3 he patted Francis on the chest to congratulate him on the knockdown. I don’t think he would have done that to Wilder. Maybe he came in without his full killer instinct.
Francis Ngannou the Boxer?
There has been a big bandwagon behind Francis Ngannou after this performance and all the clamoring that he won the fight. On social media there are fantasy match ups being posted like Ngannou vs Wilder or Anthony Joshua and Ngannou is seen as a clear favorite. “Ngannou beat Fury who beat Wilder” seems to be the common refrain. Even though I was wrong about this fight, I still am not convinced Francis is a championship caliber boxer after one fight. What he did was incredible and I don’t want to take anything away from him but I also think it’s best to hold our breath for a moment.
Ring Magazine’s Heavyweight Rankings
Champion: Oleksandr Usyk:- I favor Usyk based on his speed and skill
1: Tyson Fury- close fight already, a tweak here or there and he can win
2: Deontay Wilder- Wilder while one dimensional is dangerous and Fury landed his overhand right. Wilder would land his, can Ngannou withstand the shot?
3: Anthony Joshua- Joshua lost his two fights with Usyk and has not looked great in his last two wins. I think I still slightly favor Joshua but he could get knocked out.
4: Zhilei Zhang- Great fight for four or five rounds. If Ngannou can get past the early going he might be able to win a grueling decision.
5: Joseph Parker- The former WBO title holder is big and strong but he also has inconsistent performances. He has also been criticized for his lack of killer instinct. If Ngannou can replicate last Saturday he has a shot here.
6: Filip Hrgovic- Winnable for Ngannou as Hrgovic stepped up recently and struggled in his most recent wins. He is a skilled operator but can be caught and hurt.
7: Jared Anderson- Anderson is still a work in progress and I would favor Ngannou if he can replicate what he did Saturday.
8: Joe Joyce- Joyce has a leaky defense and is very slow. Ngannou countered well and hit hard. Joyce will force a higher pace than Fury did. Could go either way.
9: Frank Sanchez- Sanchez is talented and beat the hard punching Efe Ajagba. I favor Sanchez
10: Otto Wallin- Wallin is best known for giving Fury a very difficult fight and beating Murat Gassiev. Wallin is a southpaw and is one of those substance over style types. This is winnable for Francis.
Off the top 10 are also Dillian Whyte and Andy Ruiz and I think he can beat Whyte but Ruiz is a different story. Of course this is all going with the Buster Douglas caveat of can Ngannou pull off another night like this? I will say what impressed me about Ngannou was his physical strength, Fury has been manhandling all of his opponents in the clinch in his last few fights but he could do nothing on Saturday. Francis had a better gas tank than I expected for a muscle bound 272 pounder who never boxed before. Also impressive is the fight was 30 minutes which is longer than the 25 minute UFC title fights. Ngannou can fight out of both stances, clearly hits hard, has punch variety, can counter, can lead, takes a good punch, and is a disciplined fighter.
One last thing I would like to point out is that Ngannou was just that close on a few punches that missed. A few bombs were barely off target and may have turned the tide. Fury is 6’9″ and has a long reach and is a very good defensive fighter. Take off a few inches in height and some of those left hooks connect and change the fight. This makes Ngannou more interesting in other heavyweight matchups as the disparity in range won’t be as big and he won’t have as much of a defense to figure out.
Rematch?
Ngannou fought well enough to deserve one but I think the boxing world deserves a unified heavyweight champion. There have been a couple of missed opportunities in the last few years to consolidate the four major titles and with Fury and Usyk slated to meet in February; I hope this is the next move. Win, lose or draw I would like Fury to give Francis another shot. That said, the unification bout has a rematch clause which would more than likely be invoked. Francis will likely have to wait, he also has a deal with PFL which he may still follow through on. If Francis decides to keep boxing, I would prefer to see him face a top ten heavyweight and replicate and improve upon what we saw Saturday night.
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