35 year old British WBC Heavyweight Champion, Tyson Fury with 25 years’ experience in the boxing profession on Sunday survived a huge embarrassment with a third round knock down from a debut opponent, Francis Ngannou with a controversial split decision that did not go well with the crowd and the boxing greats at the ring side.

The duo came into Riyadh Saudi Arabia with funfair for the BATTLE OF THE BADDEST only for the challenger in the 10 round none title fight, Cameroonian Francis, THE PREDATOR to give Fury, THE GYPSY KING his 7th knock down of his boxing career in the 3rd round.

The Judges gave Fury the night with 96-93 and 95-94 while another Judge gave Francis 95-94 in the bout that has no clause for a rematch but Fury wants a rematch probably after the bout with Ukranian Olksandr Usyk who holds the IBF, IBO, WBO and WBA titles as he said (of Francis), “He gave me one of my toughest fights in 10 years. He’s a hell of a fighter”.

Fury had a defending to do holding his opponent severally and even gave an elbow punch along the line as the crowd shouted “Francis, Francis, Francis!”. He was highly criticized.

Hear Christiana Ronaldo: “How embarrassing is it that a Boxer had to cheat against an 0-0 in Boxing MMA fighter who was dog walking him”. (He was referring to the elbow punch of Tyson Fury). Ronaldo had placed a bet on millions of Dollars on the possibility of Francis winning. Ronaldo bought Francis an expensive custom wrist watch.

Francis who smiles to the bank with $10m was UFC Heavyweight Champion from 2021 when he stopped Stipe Miocic in round two to become the UFC champion of the world. He left thereafter after a small dispute with the UFC.

Tyson Fury who is 6ft 9ins tall and 19st 1 Lb had 34 fights winning 33, losing no bout but had a draw. Twenty-four of his bouts were Knockouts.

Francis Ngannou who was born in Batie, Cameroon had 20 fights of which 12 were knockouts winning 17 with three losses is 6ft 4ins tall and weighs 18st 3Lb. Francis said he has seen boxing now and he is ready for the art.

Francis’ entrance was magnetic as he came from a special throne with a beautiful Gold crown removed from his head to go into the ring my ‘terrible enfant’ of world boxing Iron Mike Tyson who walked him to the ring talking along and accompanied by his UFC folks, Israel Adesanya and Usman Kamaru of Nigeria.

There were also celebrities like Kanye West, Eminem, Ronaldo; UFC’s magic guy, Conor McGregor; Legend boxers Sugar Ray Leonard and Manny Pacquiao with others routing for Francis.

British Middleweight Boxer, Chris Eubank Jnr tweeted that he thought Francis had won. “It was close but he (Francis) was the aggressor who landed heavier shots and scored a knockdown. Fury deserved to lose after having so much trouble against a man who has never boxed before…too much filming Netflix specials not enough time in the gym I’m guessing. Unlucky Francis”.

Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk who is to meet Tyson Fury for the Heavyweight unification bout on 3rd December 2023 was also at the ringside grinning like a school boy as Francis pummeled Tyson Fury. He simply said “Am ready for Fury” but the bout may be put on hold because the Promoters of Saudi Arabia thinks it should wait until the season expires in March next year. Meaning the bout may be pushed to March.

Eniola Olaunji