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Official result: Tyson Fury def. Francis Ngannou via split decision (94-95, 96-93, 95-94)
Tyson Fury is still the king of the mountain, but just barely. In a fight many expected him to walk through en route to his unification bout with Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday night in Saudi Arabia, Fury was bloodied, forced to get off the mat and outscore a debuting Francis Ngannou en route to a split decision win.
Fury, who holds the WBC and lineal heavyweight crowns, was forced to fight on the outside for much of the fight as Ngannou pressed into his face and made life miserable. Fury has long utilized his height and weight in his career to lean on opponents in the clinch and wear them down. Ngannou, a former UFC heavyweight champion, was able to muscle Fury in the clinch, at times landing inside shots and sometimes throwing Fury off of him.
While an Ngannou punch bloodied Fury early, the most stunning moment of the bout came in the third round when Ngannou landed a left hand that caught Fury and dropped him to the canvas for a knockdown.
Ngannou, who sports the physique of a Greek god, appeared to fatigue toward the middle rounds of the fight but came back with furious rallies at times during the second half, leaving Fury looking more hesitant to engage than he has throughout his undefeated career.
Still, Fury did the better boxing work most rounds and, even if not in the expected dominant fashion, was able to survive the scare and win on scorecards of 94-95, 96-93, 95-94.
"No, that definitely wasn't in the script," Fury said. "He's a hell of a fighter. Strong, good puncher, a better boxer than we ever thought he'd be. ... He's a very awkard man and a good puncher. I respect him a lot. Before the fight and afterward. Listen, he was very awkward, he wasn't coming forward. He was waiting to counter my punches. He's given me one of my hardest fights in the past 10 years."
Much of the talk heading into this fight was about Fury's signed clash with WBO, IBF and WBA heavyweight champion Usyk to crown the first undisputed heavyweight champion of the four-belt era, which had a planned -- though unofficial -- date of Dec. 23. After the fight, it seemed clear Fury was not keen on keeping to that date.
"I'm going to go home," Fury said after his promoter, Frank Warren, said the same thing. "I've been in training camp for 12 weeks. Going to go home and take a long rest and decide what's next."
For Ngannou, it's difficult to see the fight as anything other than a massive win. Not only did he survive 10 rounds with the lineal heavyweight champion, but he scored a knockdown and won on one of the official scorecards in a fight that most experts believed he'd be trounced.
"I'm feeling great," Ngannou said after the fight. "I'm feeling fantastic. It didn't go my way. I might come up short today. I might be wounded but I'll come back. I'm just a fighter. I'm ready to fight any time soon. We can run it back again and I'm sure I'm going to get better. This was my first boxing match, I'm not giving any excuse. I'm going to work harder with a little more experience and come back better. Now I know I can do this shit. Get ready. A wolf is in the house."
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Ngannou noted after the fight that he could tell he was frustrating Fury early in the fight and that it cause Fury to adjust his gameplan.
"I knew he was gonna be like that. I knew that everyone who doubted my ability to box, it's going to be like that. I feel as the fight was going, his attitude was changing," Ngannou told ESPN. "Basically when I was changing to southpaw, he wasn't doing anything. When I want to rest, I switched to southpaw and he can't doing anything.
So I realized he was having a struggle right there in that moment. But I was slowing down already, I wasn't in my best speed. I think it was in the fifth or sixth round, I kind of got him but I didn't want to go crazy because I didn't want to use too much power."
The undercard on Saturday night saw four massive finishes in the heavyweight division, mostly with overmatched competition. Moses Itauma and Aslanbek Makhumdov both earned first-round finishes to open the festivities against Istvan Bernath and Junior Anthony Wright, respectively. Plus, former WBO champ Joseph Parker got back in the win column with a third-round TKO of Simon Kean. And Fabio Wardley settled his beef with David Adeleye by stopping his foe in the seventh round.
CBS Sports was with you throughout the entire way on Saturday with the live results and highlights below.
Fight card, results
- Tyson Fury def. Francis Ngannou via split decision (94-95, 96-93, 95-94)
- Fabio Wardley def. David Adeleye via seventh-round TKO
- Joseph Parker def. Simon Kean via third-round TKO
- Arslanbek Makhmudov def. Junior Anthony Wright via first-round TKO
- Moses Itauma def. Istvan Bernath via first-round TKO
Fury vs. Ngannou scorecard, live coverage
| Round | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fury | 10 | 10 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 96 |
| Ngannou | 9 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 93 |
