Retaining his undefeated record — in the most narrow of fashions, undisputed WBC heavyweight champion, Tyson Fury survived a massive scare courtesy of a huge third round knockdown from Francis Ngannou — defeating the former UFC heavyweight champion in a close, split decision (95-94, 96-93, 94-94) win over the Cameroonian in their main event clash in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Taking the opening two rounds against sport newcomer, Ngannou in their monstrous heavyweight fight, Fury was stunned massively in the third round — suffering a massive, upsetting knockdown.
Turning in the biggest punch of the fight so far, former UFC star, Ngannou clubbed Fury with a massive left hook in close on the temple, scoring a huge knockdown on the Morecambe native. With the knockdown, Batié native, Ngannou scored a 10-8 round officially over the WBC heavyweight titleholder.
Holding his own against Fury for the remainder of the fight, Ngannou would struggle with output in the remaining few rounds, despite some close combat encounters with the world champion, en route to a close, and sure-to-be contested split decision loss to the former.
Below, catch the highlights from Tyson Fury’s decision win over Francis Ngannou
TYSON FURY HAS DEFEATED FRANCIS NGANNOU BY SPLIT DECISION!!!
95-94 Francis Ngannou
96-93 Tyson Fury
95-94 Tyson Fury#BattleOfTheBaddest | #FuryNgannou pic.twitter.com/FKJTFJuAZn
— Boxing on TNT Sports (@boxingontnt) October 28, 2023
NGANNOU KNOCKED DOWN FURY
— ESPN Ringside (@ESPNRingside) October 28, 2023