TYSON Fury was controversially declared the winner of the heavyweight boxing fight against mixed martial arts star Frances Ngannou overnight in Saudi Arabia, a decision that caused serious outrage.
The World Boxing Council heavyweight champion maintained his perfect unbeaten record with the victory against the valiant Cameroonian but the split-decision win did not go down well with the majority of the spectators and those watching on television across the world.
Fury suffered a heavy knockdown in round three and appeared to have suffered a huge upset defeat against the former UFC champion after 10 rounds of boxing in Riyadh.
Fury’s WBC belt was not on the line and the Briton was expected to dominate his 37-year-old opponent, who was making his boxing debut.
But Ngannou boxed brilliantly as he took Fury the distance and left the boastful world boxing champion bruised and battered in his own sport.
After the first round ended without much action as both fighters sized each other up, former UFC heavyweight champion Ngannou landed a big left hook early in round two that drew blood from Fury.
Ngannou then almost produced one of the greatest upsets in the history of boxing in the third round when he knocked Fury down with a huge left hook – but he was unable to finish the job when the big Briton rose to his feet and beat the count.
Stung by the knockdown, Fury tried to take Ngannou out with a series of massive punches in round four without success.
There was no other major incident until the end of the fight, although Fury was down again in round seven.
Luckily for the 35-year-old Briton the referee called it a slip, as it looked as if Ngannou had done enough to earn a historic win.
However, most of the spectators were stunned when Fury was declared the winner via a split decision.
Two judges awarded Fury with highly-debatable scorecards of 96-93 and 95-94, with the third ruling 95-94 in Ngannou’s favour.
