Francis Ngannou upset the odds by going the distance with Tyson Fury despite losing via split decision.
It’s a defeat that he heavily disputes, and the fact that he knocked the world champion down before boxing much better than most expected has others feeling the same. Fury would go on to call it his toughest fight in a decade.
One man who believes the MMA star turned in-demand heavyweight did enough to win is Tim Bradley, a two-weight world champion and Hall of Famer.
Speaking on Pro Box TV, an animated Bradley said he scored the fight by one point to Ngannou.
“I’m not one of those guys that says in the moment ‘he did a lot better than I expected, so he wins the fight’ – hell no. This ain’t no brownie points show. I’m not finna give my credibility away just for the hell of it. This is serious.”
Watching this fight and scoring this fight the way I know how – because trust me, I’ve taken the course on how to score fights … I’m not mad at the decision, but in my book, I thought Francis Ngannou won this damn fight. Without a doubt. By one point, he snuck it out. And he put the champion on the f***ing canvas! What else more does he have to do?
You put the champion on the canvas and most people are saying he only won three rounds? Are you kidding me? Stop. That means that he’s only won one other round beside the round that he knocked freakin’ Fury down.”
Fury took the bout on two scorecards whilst the remaining judge scored it for Ngannou.
Although the first fight on his record is a loss, there’s no question that the Cameroon-born 37-year-old was the moral victor on the night, and he has taken an air of invincibility from Fury.