Oleksandr Usyk couldn’t believe what he was watching and neither could anyone else. Tyson Fury, the man many believe to be the best heavyweight of his generation, was fortunate to beat boxing novice Francis Ngannou in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
A fight he was supposed to win with ease ended up being one of the most difficult contests of his career, both as an amateur and as a professional. After a spectacular but drawn-out opening ceremony and three national anthems, Fury and Ngannou finally got down to business.
The WBC champion danced around the ring, picking his shots from range, while Ngannou marched forward with his hands held high. Outside of a decent overhand right from the WBC champion, little of note landed in the first three minutes of action.
In the second round, Fury got his jab going but struggled to find his intended target with the lead hand while Ngannou stayed composed and kept his shape, chipping away at his adversary with a few good shots. By this point, it felt as though the routine demonstration of prowess that fans had come to expect from the contest wouldn’t be the overriding narrative of the fight.
And that was further reinforced when Ngannou sent Fury tumbling to the canvas in round three courtesy of a stiff left hook. The camera then panned over to Usyk, who was a picture of distress – his long-awaited undisputed title fight looking like it was slipping away from him at that very moment.
But in the end, Fury was given the nod via split decision with scorecards of 95-94 to the challenger and 96-93, 95-94 to the lineal heavyweight champ – although many felt Ngannou had done enough to get his hand raised. After such a nip-and-tuck affair, a rematch against the Cameroonian MMA star felt like an inevitability.
But Fury insisted that the Usyk bout was “guaranteed” to come next. “Listen, it’s been going on a long time,” said Fury as he came face-to-face with Usyk. “We were supposed to fight in April at Wembley, it never happened. Let’s do the fight over here for all the belts.
“These guys will sort it all out and it will be on. It will be our next fight, guaranteed.” Usyk replied: “This is a big fight, I want this fight, the whole world wants this fight.” Usyk and Fury are now expected to square off on December 23 or sometime in January. But Fury’s dismal showing on Saturday night will surely put a dampener on the bout being billed as the “biggest in boxing”.
