Fury vs Ngannou - A review of an almost disastrous night in Riyadh and the questions it has posed

It wasn’t pretty and was tougher than anyone could have imagined, but Tyson Fury remains unbeaten with the undisputed title fight still in his sights

Last Saturday night, October 28th, we witnessed the ‘Riyadh Season’ curtain raiser, as the ‘Battle of the Baddest’ saw Tyson ‘The Gypsy King’ Fury (34-0-1 24KO) face off with the former UFC heavyweight champion and dynamite fisted Francis 'The Predator' Ngannou (0-1-0) .

The attendees during fight week and fight night itself was a who’s who of celebrity A listers and boxing royalty. Despite the previously held perceptions of the quality of the fight itself, there was no doubt that as an overall event, this felt as big as it gets. In terms of the actual boxing match, this was viewed as pitting the generational heavyweight king against an aging MMA fighter who himself had not had a competitive fight in over two years. Some pundits, largely those coming from the MMA community, gave Ngannou a punchers chance on account of his freakish KO power, however the widely held opinion was Fury would put an end to the one-sided proceedings before the halfway mark. What transpired over the course of the next ten rounds could not have been more different.

With the much-demanded undisputed title fight with Usyk rumoured to be signed and sealed for December 23rd, many felt Fury would try and end the bout as early as possible in order to mitigate any chance of injury, something Fury echoed prefight himself, stating ‘we don’t get paid for overtime.’ This looked like the plan as the first bell sounded, with ‘The Gypsy King’ immediately taking centre ring and letting rip with a double jab overhand right combination. Ngannou, as he would be for the remainder of the bout, looked completely unfazed, before establishing centre ring himself and gradually looking to get in range.

For the first couple of rounds there wasn’t a great deal of action, however for me Fury edged them both with a more consistent jab and a couple of well-timed overhand rights and lead left hooks as Ngannou looked to close the gap.

What was most surprising however, is how competitive both rounds were, with the Dewey Cooper trained Ngannou looking like a seasoned pro, employing well-schooled footwork, nice lateral movement and a varied left-hand lead as he looked to eek his way in to find openings for his own power shots.

In the third round the WBC champ looked like he might be settling into more of a rhythm. For the first time in the fight he sat down on a big one two which found its mark flush on the Cameroonian native’s chin, who once again was unmoved. Growing in confidence, Fury looked to repeat this success, jumping straight back in with the same combination. And then it happened. On this occasion Ngannou read what was coming perfectly, timing a beautiful left hook which clipped Fury round the side of the head as he pulled out from his own straight right. This wasn’t a flash knockdown or a lucky shot. Ngannou had landed a beautifully crafted shot against the lineal Heavyweight champion, and he was hurt.

Perhaps lacking trust in his engine over the starkly different 10 x 3-minute round format compared with his usual 5 x 5-minute rounds in MMA, Ngannou really let Fury off the hook in the remaining 20 seconds of the round. In hindsight, that may have been his moment to achieve what would have been one of the biggest upsets in sporting history.

Between rounds four to seven there really wasn’t much in it, however for me Fury was slightly the more active and controlled most of the action from the outside. ‘The Predator’ was still mightily impressive and had his fair share of moments, including a number of straight left hands out of his previously unfavoured southpaw stance. Not bad for a man having his first ever competitive fight in the squared circle.

The eighth stanza was one of the easier rounds to score, as Ngannou had his best spell since the knockdown, putting together a sustained burst of attack, landing numerous heavy shots in front of a raucous 26,000 spectators, cheering on each clubbing shot in sheer amazement at what they were witnessing.

The fight was really up for grabs heading into the final two, however Fury did manage to get back to his boxing and for me shaded them both, leading to him being granted a razor thin split decision victory. Official scores were 95-54 Ngannou, 95-94 and 96-93 Fury.

Questions and takeaways

Robbery in Riyadh or are we going overboard?

I personally scored the fight 96-93 for Fury, however there is a very large contingent of former fighters and pundits alike who didn’t agree with the decision. For me this is a slight overreaction which stems from the surprise of seeing the MMA star have any success whatsoever. There is no doubt about it, Ngannou put in a sensational performance, however it feels slightly reminiscent of when Marcos Maidana gave Floyd Mayweather hell in their first battle. Everyone was expecting a Mayweather shut out, however the fact that Maidana actually gave him a tough fight led to the conclusion that he deserved to win, which in reality wasn’t a true depiction of what had happened. Last Saturday night there were a few swing rounds, particularly in the mid-section of the fight, so I do appreciate why there is a difference of opinion over who should have had their hand raised.

Regardless of who you think edged the fight, Ngannou proved everyone wrong and had far more success than we could have imagined. The UFC star had the most memorable moments in rounds three and eight, however over the course of the other eight rounds, for me there was not enough consistent work for him to be given the other three he would need to run out a 95-94 victor. Had he been granted the decision, it would have been the perfect and most unbelievable crescendo to one of the greatest sporting underdog stories of all time.

For me the right man won, however regardless of your disposition, proclamations of robbery are way off the mark. The verdict of a draw in the first instalment of the Fury Wilder trilogy was a robbery. Josh Taylor vs Jack Catterall was a robbery. This was a closely contested fight where depending on what you like, you could make a case for either man getting the nod.

Francis Ngannou – MMA King but also potential threat to boxing’s heavyweight elite?

On the back of this performance, Francis Ngannou has overnight become one of the biggest names in combat sports, both MMA and boxing. Switch hitting against the number one heavyweight in the world, landing a number of sharp and heavy shots with either hand, putting him on the canvas and being competitive throughout, you have to give him a chance against many of the top ten names in the division. Who knows, perhaps with a few more fights and with a bigger sample size of Ngannou’s boxing ability, this decision win for Tyson Fury won’t look quite as shambolic is it does today.

Is Tyson Fury shot?

This is the biggest question mark that will have arisen from the fight. Tyson Fury has made no excuses and still attests that he had a great 12-week training camp. If that is true, there is big cause for concern, as the man we saw on Saturday night was a shell of the main we saw in the Deontay Wilder trilogy. His timing was off and for every overhand right he landed, he missed another three, often by some distance. His footwork looked all over the place, falling in with his work and frequently losing shape. Defensively his reaction times were off, repeatedly being tagged by a man who is hardly the quickest, whilst after being dropped he also didn’t look like he had the confidence to really let his hands go through fear he may be countered once more. Uncharacteristically, his engine also looked depleted from the eighth round onwards. This is bearing in mind the fight wasn’t exactly being fought at an electric pace.

At the age of 35, Fury has been in a lot of tough fights over the course of his career. Due to his time out of the ring, one can easily forget he made his debut all the way back in 2008. Both fights with big John McDermott earlier in his career, Steve Cunningham, Otto Wallin and of course the first and third fights with Deontay Wilder, were all taxing fights that may now be beginning to take their toll. We won’t know until we see him in the ring with Oleksandr Usyk if this was just an off night, but there were a lot of warning signs last Saturday that the unassailable 6ft9 heavyweight ruler may finally be on the slide.

No longer a heavy favourite over Oleksandr Usyk?

With all of this in mind, all of a sudden a fight with Oleksandr Usyk isn’t so easy to predict. If we look at two of Tyson Fury’s toughest fights, one was against a crafty southpaw in Otto Wallin, and now we have seen him repeatedly tagged with straight left’s out of the southpaw stance by Francis Ngannou. This doesn’t bode well heading into an undisputed title fight with the best southpaw in the heavyweight division, who may also possess the best footwork the division has ever seen. If Francis Ngannou can establish dominance with his lead foot outside of Fury’s from the southpaw stance, Usyk will have a field day.

The Ukrainian former undisputed cruiserweight champion will have been licking his lips at ringside in Riyadh, as if it was him in there last weekend, he would have run out a conclusive victor. Fury will need to get back to close to his form of two years ago against Deontay Wilder to be victorious, but the question remains if that man still exists.

What happens next?

Boxing is never a simple sport, and last Saturday night we really were thrown another curveball that has evoked a number of questions we hadn’t realised needed answering. Any hope that these cross over fights would eventually fade out has likely now diminished on the back of the huge financial success of the event, and indeed the success that Ngannou had in the ring.

The only way we will get clarity from the confusion that Saturday night elicited will be to see Fury vs Usyk, which will tell us if this was an off night or if the UK heavyweight hero is indeed now a shot fighter. Given how much this fight will have taken out of Fury, it is likely we now won’t see this fight until early next year.

For Francis Ngannou, to get an accurate assessment of his own ability it would be interesting to see him back in the ring with some other top ten heavyweights. Given the far superior pay cheques that boxing can present over MMA, we should see this happen over the next 12 months. He may not have had his hand raised, however he was without doubt the real winner of the event in terms of public adoration. If he so desires, he will have earnt himself a couple more multimillion pay days in boxing.

For Tyson Fury, the main thing is he got the victory. His stock may well be the lowest it has been in recent years, but the one silver lining is he will be given a chance to put everything right and become undisputed heavyweight champion of the world in just a few months’ time.

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