WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) got all he could handle from MMA star Francis Ngannou (0-1) in a ten round non-title fight on Saturday at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. “The Gypsy King” suffered a small cut on his forehead in round two. Ngannou dropped Fury with a left hook in round three.
Fury started to outbox Ngannou in round four. Rounds were competitive with Fury’s jab saving him. Ngannou won the exchanges in round eight. Fury went back to the jab in rounds nine and ten and won by split decision. Scores were 95-94 Ngannou, 96-93, 95-94 Fury.
With the win, Fury set up a December 23 clash against WBA/IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed title at the same venue.
In a grudge fight between undefeated British heavyweight standouts, WBA #11 Fabio Wardley (17-0, 16 KOs) halted WBO #9 David Adeleye (12-1, 11 KOs) in round seven. Wardley dropped Adeleye with a left hook and got a referee’s stoppage moments later. Time was 2:43. Adeleye didn’t like the stoppage and shoved the referee.
Former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker (33-3, 23 KOs), currently rated WBO #6, IBF #6, WBC #10, knocked out Simon Kean (23-2, 22 KOs) in round three. An uppercut put Kean on the deck where he was counted out. Time was 2:04.
WBC #3, WBA #5, IBF #10, WBO #13 heavyweight Arslanbek Makhmudov (18-0, 17 KOs) needed just 70 seconds to steamroll Junior Anthony Wright (20-5-1, 17 KOs). Makhmudov dropped Wright with a right hand, then got a referee’s stop when he connected with another crushing right.
Hot heavyweight prospect Moses Itauma (6-0, 4 KOs) demolished Istvan Bernath (10-2, 8 KOs) in the first round. Itauma dropped Bernath, then got a referee’s stoppage with his follow-up barrage. Time was 1:53.
WBA #2, WBC #9 heavyweight Martin Bakole (20-1, 15 KOs) scored a fourth round TKO over 42-year-old Carlos Takam (40-8-1, 28 KOs). 299lb Bakole overpowered and battered Takam to get a referee’s stoppage at 2:15.
That was brutal! Full credit to Takam, he never went down, even after that ghoulish shot to the body, but he took a beating there!
Does that mean you actually paid for this?
Waiting for the main event. I will be watching..
Hayell no! They streamed the undercard (or some of it anyway) on YouTube.
Good for you. I thought from your previous posts that you are a true boxing fan
” They streamed the undercard (or some of it anyway) on YouTube.”
I didn’t know that and I was knocking myself out trying to find a stream!
They only showed the Bakole-Takam fight.
If I was Tyson fury right now I’d be suicidal.. I just lost to a newbie that put boxing gloves on for first time 12 weeks ago, it’s like losing to a YouTuber. My whole legacy has basically been sh*t on & people will always remember me getting my *ss whooped by a UFC guy.
Great post, Lawrence. Tyson Fury, with his mental health issues, is probably considering suicide right now, as he has in the past. Hide his car keys & keep him away from sharp objects & pill bottles!
You guys are brutal, Ngannou started out boxing in Africa and then got into MMA also hes a natural born fighter. He has two things going for him and that was heart and power which either you have It or not and cant be taught, so learn about the fight game my man.
‘Roly Poly’ Bakole was actually quite good. Those short, and sharp on the inside are effective.
Another tomato can for hypejob Makhmudov His fighting the calibre of uber drivers as Beyoncé Wilder did in his first 30 fights The same goes for the dude that Moses guy “fought”. He looked like someone who showed up for first day of training
The Makh. fight was a ridiculous mismatch, seemingly made at the last minute as Boxrec didn’t even list it until yesterday afternoon.
It’s on utube, all 70 seconds of it. Makh. was the only one today that I was interested in seeing.
” hypejob Makhmudov”
I agree with the “tomato can” part but I do not agree with that at all.
Just researched Makhmudov’s amatuer credetials. Guess I should have done that before commenting 200 amatuer fights Sorry, I stand corrected He could actually be the real deal But with his age and an amatuer pedegree like that, he really should be fighting much higher level opposition
Sack, just like you wouldn’t call fury a cracker, little boy.
I would take Makhmudov over Ngannou.
I’ll take Makh. over Tyson Fury after a couple of more prep fights for him, legit fights, not like tonight. I’ll take no one over Usyk.
CBS sports is showing the highlights, but since the first two fights ended in the first, well that’s all there was to see. It did not show the bakole fight.
You definitely want to see Itauma in with better competition, but at least he’s just 18 years old. He’s literally a decade away from his physical prime. Makhmudov, on the other hand, is almost twice as old at 34 and his last three fights now have ended inside of 2 rounds. He’s got two top-five rankings and I think that guy is in desperate need of some competition. Bakole would be just fine!
Seems like a terrible undercard. However, one fight from this card, that I would be interested in would be the Russian against the boxer from the Congo, Martin Bakole. The Russian boxer went the distance with Carlos Takam. On two of the score cards, he won 6 of the 10 rounds, and that was just last year. With Bakole’s stoppage, this would be an interesting match. Many tout the Russian. He is 34 and Bakole is 30.
“Seems like a terrible undercard”
They seem to have patched it together at the last minute. The Makhmidov mismatch wasn’t even listed on Boxrec until yesterday afternoon.
I can’t even believe Parker is ranked anywhere in the top 10. Wow! Is the heavyweight division that stagnant we need to recycle lame-one-dimensional contenders?
Scooby. The heavyweight division is a joke. The journey men of the the 70-90’s would beatbtodays so called champs.
Some would yes
Agree big men’s without skills !
Good win for Fabio, right and a left hook
Watched a few work out videos of Ngannou…. He makes Anthony Joshua look like Willie Pep
Any of these heavyweights look like potential champions? Who’s looked the best so far?
Ok at least we know one thing, there is no way the main event could be worse than the music.
maybe fury shouldnt balloon up over 300lbs between fights and come in at 280lbs
hahaha fury.. love it..
LMFAO!
The Fury’s circus clown show caught up to him. ♂️
Fury disgraced the sport of boxing with his pathetic performance.
Wow, Tyson Fury looked terrible! Guess that’s what happens when you don’t train for a fight. Uysk beats Fury and Ngannou goes on to be a great pro boxer IMO
Lol, making excuses for Fury? Did they agree and sign the contract and make preparations for this fight? Francis is 0-0-0 in boxing and is OLDER than Fury. AND no i do not think Francis’ gonna be any better.. maybe a little bit experienced. He is old, slow and his stamina is a little question. But Tyson winning this fight is absolutely atrocious!
Max, that’s no excuse. If you don’t train you don’t look good. Pretty basic. Careless who won, but if ngannou knocked him down or remotely looked good against him are two reasons: he didn’t train or fury’s skills are eroding right before our eyes.
Then that is Fury’s problem! Francis won this fight. And fury got sat down crossed eyed trying to align his eyes getting up. Ngannou won this fight and no i am from the Philippines.
I don’t doubt that, it is his problem if one, his boxing skills are eroding or he didn’t train. By rights, fury should of had him out of there in a few rounds, he didn’t. He went the distance, so ngannou is either a natural boxer or fury just didn’t show up today.
He wasn’t as flabby as he usually is and said he trained 12 weeks. Sounds like you’re making excuses instead of giving Francis his due.
Looked like Fury was holding back the whole fight even until the end. I thought he might come out and go for the KO in the 9th but nothing. Maybe Ngannou can land another big money fight maybe against Wilder. Wilder will bomb him out.
I think fury carried him. They like each other and he didn’t want to tarnish nnganous MMA legacy. This was semis staged imo
Wilder is another story, bad match up for Ngannou! Francis won this fight though… what a robbery!
Wilder will engage! It’s either you knock him out or he gets knocked out.
ngannou was robbed
I thought Tyson lost, if we’re going by heavyweight rules meaning the winner is the one who landed the biggest shots. Reminded me of the robbery when Zhang lost to Hrgovic. Post fight interview you could tell Tyson was extremely embarrassed & had no trash talk.
Classy at the end. Sick of tattooed thugs and gold teeth crying about decisions.
Fury still undefeated. The great ones find a way. Ngannou suffers yet another defeat. Time to retire.
“yet another defeat?” Dude he won his last UFC fight, left as HW champ, banked on himself and got his biggest pay day, went 10 rounds with Fury against all odds (knock down included). He didn’t get the decision but these are all wins.
Yes if you’re from UK. Just look at Fury’s face and the replays after you’re done worshipping Fury. What Fury found out is he lying on the canvass with his eyes crossed trying to align it. Funny.
Wow, what an unbiased and unique perspective you have on things Wally. Yes, Fury got the win, but a controversial one against a guy making his boxing debut? Say what you want, but MMA is not boxing. I would have expected Fury to dominate every step of the way in this one. I didn’t see the fight and had no interest to because I thought it was a complete sham, but Nagannou put the heavyweight division on notice!
Fury should be embarrassed and ashamed. Thankfully I didn’t spend $$ on this farce. I guess Ngannou deserves a rematch now?
Thats one way of looking at it. Ngannou should be proud. He proved everyone wrong.
Ngannou was robbed. Money wins again.
This was a really good fight. Francis surprised Tyson with his boxing skills, he busted Tyson Fury open in round two with an inside uppercut, and the knockdown in three was quite interesting. His body shots cause so many problems for Fury it made fiery not want to engage. At one point I heard someone in Tyson’s Corner say are you okay because you’re not fighting
Ngannou will bomb Beyonce Wilder OUT! Tremendous strength…
It was great to see the African kings of MMA (Francis, Usman and Adesanya) together again. Francis bet on himself against all odds, and proved each and every one of us wrong including myself. He just went 10 rounds with the boxing heavyweight champion of the world, held his own and knocked him down. Very inspirational considering where he came from, and he lived out his dream. Way to go champ. It looks like Usyk vs Fury is on for December. What a way to end the year.
End a year, or career?
I said you have to know the people in the ring and not just the one from the sport you like. I said this fight had the same feeling when Rhonda faced holly Holmes. I said you people (The MA forum) are counting Holmes out too fast and she has all the ability to win. When they said Fury was facing Francis people here (Boxing forum) called it everything including a circus. I said Francis has a fair chance. I didn’t know if he would pull it off, but the tricks Fury pulls wont work on Francis. You cant lean on his to tire him out because he is as big of a guy. I thought Fury lost this fight. He did what he could including one hell of a elbow shot, but not once did he hurt Francis. I will admit that I was focused on Francis so I may have missed some of the things Fury did to win a round, but I scored it 6-3-1 plus one knock down. I think one of the rounds you couldn’t or shouldn’t give to either since they did nothing. Either way we got a good fight and I think Francis showed he can be a boxer and has earned another crack at a top heavyweight and maybe somebody like Andy Ruiz whos looking for a match.
Tyson fury got whooped bad. Worst robbery ever. Frances the new champ. Fury got schooled. That’s what he gets talking all that shit. Now sit down and shut up.
Bakole is the best heavyweight who fought on this card, if he can keep his weight in check.
He did look pretty good. His punches had snap and at 300, he was pretty fluid.
Good that’s what he gets for f*kin around with this guy. If rounds weren’t scored individually you would think Nogannu won the fight, the rounds he won, he won clean but they didn’t carry over Fury 6 rounds to 4.
Fury is trash. No way on earth Che should have ever beaten Klitcki or even Wilder Fury sucks the root there is a god yusk ends him
Fury would´ve looked much better in a hot dog contest.
I sure as hell was wrong! Big respect to Nagannou! As far as Fury, what to say? Don’t understand it. Is Nagannou now a player in the heavyweight division?
He is not. And he will probably get schooled or knocked out against a real boxer or someone who is willing to capitalize on his mistakes. What he has is power and maybe chin. But technically, he will be beaten by a decent HW. Fury is a clown who did not take Ngannou seriously that is what his fanbase said and looking at the odds. So much pride and ego. Ngannou surpasses all expectations coming from a poor family, UFC and now boxing. A great story for the guy.
Can’t you guys see that if Ngannou won? A big slap for boxing!
Fury embarrassed the sport or boxing
He’s been embarrassing for years. Fat, slow and clumsy he’s only been successful because of his limited controlled resume and the dreadful level of current talent.
Woooww. Didn’t see the fight, but will definitely look at the highlight. The fact that Nganou knocked down the heavyweight champ, went 10 rounds, and some people think he actually won in his pro debut is a black eye against the sport of boxing. This is why I said that Joshua has a shot of beating Fury…he’s close to him in size.
Great fight!
Fury in there looking like Spence during the Crawford beat down.
Usyk will make fury look like an ametuer.
Should be embarrassed…as a boxing trainer I am disgusted
Ngannu did exellent on his boxing debut! Just imagine what he would do to ruiz,wilder and joshua if they ever to challenge him!
Parker vs Makhmudov should be a co main event fight make or break fight for both boxers on the Fury vs Uysk fight
Fury was not prepared to fight and never expected that $h!+. Ngannou was shockingly good and deserved credit for what he did. Fury won more rounds but he was incredibly unimpressive. Usyk sucks but Fury better get his fat @$$ in shape.
Wilder-Ngannou would be a huge fight and Wilder would likely blast him to hell but the opposite is possible, too.
Was Fury drunk or something? That was embarrassing! I hope Ngannou fights on the undercard to the Usyk fight.
Clear carry by Fury.. all he had to do was step in with the jab.. not just jab but step forward with the jab.. fake fix BS.. Ngannou is worlds away from competency on even a journeyman level.. lead hand low, chin high, lead foot transitions at the wrong moments, toes pointed in the wrong direction .. unsettling to the stomach
Just watched the reply from start to finish of Fury’s fight with Ngannou, Had Fury winning but barely. Fury seemed to me his head was not into this fight and I seriously believe he took this fight to lightly as a clown show which up until the last minute was suppose to be an exhibition bout. Fury reminds me of the Rocky movie where Apollo Creed’s corner told Apollo that Rocky doesn’t know it’s a damn show, he thinks it’s a damn fight.
Fury was sure lucky that knockdown was the result of a glancing blow and that it didn’t land flush. For his first ever boxing match Ngannou really showed and held his own, credit to him. It should certainly embarrass Fury. I imagine this fight will surely change the odds for Fury vs Usyk. Personally, I hope Usyk wrecks Fury, it’s the size difference however that changes the whole dynamic of that match as compared to this one. The unanswered question that’s left is whether this fight helps wake up and motivate Fury or whether it creates doubts and distracts his psyche and ego.
Oh, and credit and respect to Mike Tyson too.
Full credit to Ngannou and Mike Tyson who trained him the best possible way. This was Ngannou first professional boxing match let’s not forget this!
This TF gets the beating of his life against Usyk. Looking forward to December 23 assuming the match in going to happen…
Usyk set to join Crawford and Inoue as a two division four belt Undisputed champion before the year is out.
The sport never had integrity & keeps losing credibility & respectibility.
I said earlier, tyson is on his way of not getting up and totally knocked out
It’s coming
Fury disgraced boxing by coming into the fight out-of-shape & unprepared. And hopefully we’ve heard Fury’s beery blowhard dad, who thinks he could beat Mike Tyson.
Francis won hands down he was robbed he should be new heavy weight champ
Boxing has suspected of crooked judging of boxing events. The perfect example is last evenings fight between Ngannou vs Fury. Ngannou down fury in the 3rd round and really beat him up in the 9th round, but held his own throughout the fight. The people who control these events think we people who subscribe to these events are real stupid.
That’s what happens when the division is full of big men’s who actually cannot fight.. I mean Fury is a fighter of course but he lacks the skills the HW had in the 70’s, 80’s or 90’s.. He is just bigger, heavier and uses his reach to keep opponents at bay. And when they get passed his reach he grabbs them and put his weight on them..
But beware Usyk got skills and he would’ve beat the Fury of yesterday easily.
I think Fury really underestimated Ngnannou’s patience. He expected Ngannou to give him more openings and eventually knock him out, and he made Fury come to him and countered.
Fury would win a rematch easy, but he would make it a really boring fight. Had he just sat back and jabbed, it would have been a boring easy victory.
Regarding as far as rounds go, Fury won enough rounds to win the fight on points clearly. After the 8th round Ngannou was gassed out and he was barely throwing. It was a boring Clear workman like decision victory for Fury but he did not look good. Fury needs to rematch Ngannou regardless if Fury beats Usyk or not. After this rough outing Fury needs to reschedule Usyk until February right after the Super Bowl and before Match Madness basketball. Then win or lose he needs to fight Ngannou next July or Aigust in a mid Sumner showdown before Canelo returns in September. Ngannou should return on the Fury Usyk undercard against Andy Ruiz or Joseph Parker in a tune up for Fury. After Fury then Ngannou could end 2024 or begin 2025 fighting Deontay Wilder or Anthony Joshua maybe one in December of 2024 then the other in the spring of 2025. This Fury fight has earned Ngannou the biggest paydays of his life in boxing most glamorous division. It don’t get much better than that in the sport of boxing unless he can somehow get a Canelo fight then that’s the best any heavyweight boxer of this ever can ever hope to do financially.
Full credit to Francis. He proved the world wrong. Boxing will never allow Francis to win the title so I’d like to see him fight Deontay Wilder next.
This is how a basic boxer looks when they dont outweigh their opponent by 40lbs+. With a such weight advantage Chris Bird would have been a super champ.
Embarrassing for Fury and boxing.