WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury says he never once underestimated former UFC titleholder Francis Ngannou.
Fury and Ngannou clashed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on October 28. Going into the boxing match, most experts expected Fury’s experience to be too much for Ngannou. Many believed “The Gypsy King” would be able to avoid “The Predator’s” power and use his technique to dominate the fight.
Instead, Ngannou dropped Fury and gave him all he could handle for 10 rounds. While Fury was awarded the split decision win, the general consensus is that he barely scraped by against a pro MMA fighter with zero pro boxing experience prior to this past weekend.
Tyson Fury Scoffs At Notion That He Didn’t Take Francis Ngannou Seriously
After his tough victory over Francis Ngannou, Tyson Fury spoke to iFL TV and discussed the close call.
“No, no, I didn’t train for a fight like that. Not one time, did I? That’s what happens if I would have listened to the media and all the so-called boxing experts, ‘Oh it’s an easy fight, it’s a mismatch, not worth watching’, then I wouldn’t have been able to win that fight. No, didn’t underestimate him,” Fury said. “I trained for 12 weeks, gave it the best preparation I could’ve done and that’s it.”
Fury then heaped praise on Ngannou, saying that the former UFC heavyweight champion threw him off guard during the fight and was effective at what he did.
“We didn’t know how good he was, but he was,” Fury said. “There was no footage of him, never seen the man fight before as a boxer and that was it. So, he was a lot more awkward than I thought he’d be and he wasn’t walking onto me, and he was just an awkward man. He was good at what he was doing, so fair play to him. Don’t take anything away from him, he gave me a better fight than all the boxers did in the last 10 years. I think that’s been my toughest fight I’ve had for years.
It’s the fight game, it’s not tap dancing. You go in there, you have a fight and that’s it, you get out of there, you get paid. The good thing is I’ve got paid, I’m going home to my family and we go on to the next undisputed fight. So, happy days,” said Tyson Fury.”
Here is the full interview: