Sean O’Malley wanted Tyson Fury to defeat Francis Ngannou and believes the judges made the right decision with their scorecards.
Several days may have passed since Saturday, October 28, but the result of Fury vs. Ngannou has continued to be a controversial topic.
A majority of fans and fighters believe Ngannou deserved to get his hand raised, while others, including Sean O’Malley, agreed with the split-decision scorecard of 96-93, 95-94, and 94-95.
During episode #258 of the TimboSugarShow, the UFC bantamweight champion reacted to the recent heavyweight boxing clash by saying this about Tyson Fury:
“I personally was kinda going for Tyson the whole time just because, I don’t know, I like to watch the show. I was going for Tyson, so when I watched the fight maybe I was a little bias toward Tyson. I thought he won the fight. He got dropped, obviously…I might have had a little bias. I have to go rewatch it. I just thought he outboxed him. He just simply outboxed him…There’s one 10-8 [round], he got dropped, but I thought he won a majority of the rounds.”
Sean O’Malley followed by saying this about Francis Ngannou:
“It’s just crazy when you’re that big, and you have a shut off in your right hand, and his left hook, his left hook is what dropped [Tyson Fury]. He has a shut off in both…He’s naturally gifted, 100%, obviously, massive, hits harder than anyone. He’s just got the shut off in both hands, and that’s all you can do in boxing. So, I wasn’t expecting him to not be good. He had months and months and months and months to prepare. He’s naturally just an athlete.”
Francis Ngannou might have lost the judges’ decision, but he didn’t leave empty-handed. The former UFC heavyweight champion skyrocketed his marketability, likely leading to several more massive paydays in boxing and MMA.
Sean O’Malley responds to Devin Haney’s callout
Francis Ngannou’s impressive performance rejuvenated fans’ interest in boxing vs. MMA super fights. As a result, lightweight boxing world champion Devin Haney called out Sean O’Malley on Twitter, with the latter responding on the same social media platform.
Alright let’s meet up https://t.co/4WACnHyRQy
— Sean O'Malley (@SugaSeanMMA) October 28, 2023
During the previously mentioned podcast episode, O’Malley provided an extended response to Haney by saying:
“The thing about Devin Haney is like, I’m not trying to throw shade or anything, but I’ve legit literally never watched him box one fight ever. I didn’t even really know who he was until more recent…I talked to the UFC about a potential boxing fight some day, and they are like, no one knows Devin Haney. There’s a zero percent change that ever happens. He’s just not a star. No one knows him.”
Sean O’Malley became the UFC bantamweight champion on August 19 by securing a second-round TKO against Aljamain Sterling. Now that he’s the king of a stacked division, O’Malley will likely attempt to defend his title several times before pursuing a boxing match.
As for Devin Haney, the 24-year-old looks to extend his professional boxing record to 31-0 on December 9 by defeating Regis Prograis (29-1) for the latter’s WBC super lightweight world title.
Watch the recent episode of the TimboSugarShow below:
