Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou put on a much more thrilling main event than many thought possible, with the world heavyweight champion scraping through on a split decision.
Fury was knocked down by Ngannou in the third of their ten-rounder, feeling the famed power of the MMA man first hand.
Whilst the Brit kept his undefeated record in tact, the moral victor was Ngannou, who made his pro boxing debut against the man many identify as the best heavyweight in the world and more than held his own.
After the decision was announced, fans were surprised to see the lack of a post-fight press conference, especially given the consistent and impressive media events that were held in the build-up to the fight.
Despite some talk on social media about the transmission being down or one of the fighters ruling it out, promoter Frank Warren told IFL TV that is was his decision to not conduct the presser.
“Tyson had the drug testing people – they were waiting for him to pee – and he was a bit dehydrated and it was taking quite a while. In the end, I could see he’d done a couple interviews in the dressing room with TV and so forth. It was my decision. I said ‘just leave it’ and we’ll deal with whatever questions we have to deal with [the day after the fight] or next week.”
“He always wants to do things [like the press conference] but let him deal with it in a nice calm and collective fashion. He doesn’t shy away from anything.”
Fury has since spoken out, saying that he looks forward to the undisputed fight with Usyk which, despite the Ukrainian’s insistence for December 23, looks like it will land early next year.