A former two-time heavyweight champion has taken issue with Tyson’s Fury performance against Francis Ngannou and stated that ‘he can’t be considered a great now.’
Fury has come in for plenty of criticism for his performance against boxing novice Ngannou. The 10-round contest was much closer than anyone expected, with Fury even being knocked down on his way to a split decision points win.
Speaking to FightHype, Hasim Rahman, who famously upset the odds by knocking out Lennox Lewis, was asked about what we learned from the fight.
“I think it goes to show that anybody who is over 200lbs can hurt you. You really can’t underestimate any adversary. Fury just thought he would go in there and walk him down. He got a rude awakening. It was a bad look for Tyson, for the heavyweights, for boxing.”
He was then asked if, as a former lineal champion, he took issue with the performance.
“I do. I feel like it was a bad look and I think that Tyson took himself out of the greatest heavyweights of all time conversation. You cannot let a novice come into boxing with zero fights, put you on the ground and have an argument about who won the fight. Tyson did a disservice to the belt, to the heavyweights. And I like him, he was arguably one of the best to ever do it. But he took a big hit with Ngannou. It was a sad day for boxing”
Although Ngannou himself is focused on a rematch with Fury, ‘The Guys King’s sights are now set on the contracted and historic undisputed fight with Oleksandr Usyk, which is scheduled to take place on February 17 in Saudi Arabia.