Tyson Fury may have been the overwhelming favourite to knock out Francis Ngannou in Saudi Arabia on Saturday night, but quite the opposite happened. Ngannou managed to put Fury on his back with a left hook in the third round, and then proceeded to push Fury around, into and out of every clinch.

It ended in a split decision, where Fury was given the W, but without any of his belts on the line, this fight was being fought purely to determine who was the “Baddest Man on the Planet”, which most people seem to agree is a title that should reside with Francis Ngannou after that performance.

Even Fury seemed a bit surprised that he won the decision, and when asked by Boxing King Media if he underestimated Ngannou, said:

‘No, no. You can’t take anything away from Francis Ngannou. He was a good fighter, he gave me a very good fight and that was it.

‘I trained very well, I prepared very good, and I didn’t have any excuses or anything.

‘It’s boxing, some days you have good days, some days you don’t. You crack on and you continue.

‘Usually when the media say it’s a mismatch and it’s not worth watching and all that, usually you’re in for a tough night.

‘And if I didn’t train as hard as I did I probably wouldn’t have got through that fight.

‘He punches hard but it was a bit like a hook on the back of the head, the knockdown in round three, apart from that he didn’t really get me with much else.’

When asked about his own performance, Fury said:

‘I felt my timing was quite off.

‘I’ve been out of the ring nearly a year again, a little bit of ring rust.

‘It was what it was. It was far from one of my best performances, it wasn’t a vintage Tyson Fury but listen, you do what you’ve got to do in there and get through and on to the next one.

‘I don’t know about a bad night because that’s taking it away from Francis Ngannou’s performance, he did very well.

‘It’s boxing, you can’t be the best version of yourself every time, but it’s about keep going and on to the next one, which is Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed championship.’

It seems the Fury/Usyk fight will go down sometime in 2024, so wouldn’t it be great if we also got Anthony Joshua Vs Francis Ngannou, with the winners facing off for the titles later in the year? Potentially a chance for Fury to make things right after his legacy took a bit of a wobble on Saturday, and also a chance for Ngannou to beat the champ more decisively. In any case, Fury should be glad he managed to escape Saudi Arabia with his record intact.

For rumours on Guy Ritchie’s Snatch sequel which could feature Tyson Fury, click HERE.