First the decision:: I knew when the fight ended that Fury would win the decision.
Why is really easy...
Saudia Arabia, where the fight took place, has the Fury-Usyk fight booked in December. There is zero chance Ngannou is winning a close fight on the judges scorecards where SA loses the heavyweight championship fight coming next.
That said, I had the fight to Ngannou giving him 23478 & R3 10-8. Personally I thought 4,6,&10 were close, and gave 2 of them to Fury. Fury won his rounds doing little damage and mostly out-pointing with a jab. Ngannou won a lot of his rounds landing power punches and doing damage.
Ngannou did the most damage in the fight by the mile. Got the only knockdown. And in the 8th he had Fury hurting and on the ropes (figuratively). Massive mistake by him to not try harder to win the 9th & 10th. He had to have known that given the Usyk fight, he was going to get zero close rounds on the score cards and lose all close fights.
Let me be clear and say, Francis Ngannou won the fight. If you're being super generous and gave 1,4,5,6,9,&10 to Fury ... you could give him the fight 95-94 (which one judge did). So in that sense him losing on the cards isn't a complete robbery. Although Francis should have won on the cards anyways IMO, he definitely won the fight in terms of who did more damage. Who got the only knockdown. Who controlled the fight & exchanges. Etc...
Taken on a whole and not round-for-round, Ngannou won and it wasn't that close. That is incredible.
Either way, amazing showing by big Frank. His stock went way up. And he made the heavyweight boxing division look like a joke.
Regarding MMA... this fight doesn't really prove it - but I think Francis is likely the best heavyweight ever. He didn't have the best career. But after learning enough wrestling, I think he's too much of a problem for anyone. He has to cut to make 265, chiseled out of stone. Athletic freak. With an iron chin. He punches like a mac truck. In the Stipe rematch with some wrestling, it was all over. I think he's too big and strong for Jones. Could Jones win? Sure. He's an amazing fighter. But that fight would have been priced close to evens and I think there would have been massive value on Francis. Why? His wrestling, size, and strength would of made it very hard for Jones to take him down. Standing, there is such a massive power difference between them that Jones would of had to fight the perfect fight to win. Personally I think Frank is likely -200 or so vs Jones if they were to fight in the Octagon.
Francis is an example of what happens if you take a truly gifted physical athlete at the heavyweight level, and commit him to combat. Most athletic freaks that big make the real $$$ elsewhere.
This fight also dispelled w/ the meme following Fury that this is what peak athletic male performance looks like (his dad bod). Yah sorry. Guess not.
Big ups to Ngannou! And to MMA vs Boxing for once! LFG!
