ON SATURDAY, October 28, World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and former UFC heavyweight champion Frances Ngannou fought in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in a pay-per-view event that blurred the already-smudged line between trash boxing and legitimate sport.
In recent years, Fury has been the world’s most formidable boxer. Other fighters have enjoyed higher pound-for-pound standing. But no one who understands boxing has maintained that Terence Crawford, Naoye Inoue, Canelo Alvarez, or anyone else from a lighter weight division would be competitive against the 6-foot-9-inch, 277-pound Gypsy King.
Ngannou, age 37, is two years older than Fury, stands 6-feet-4-inches tall, and weighed in for his fight with Tyson at 272 pounds. Competing as a mixed martial artist, he’d compiled a 17-3 (12) record. But he’d never engaged in a professional boxing match.
The fight was contested in a regular boxing ring under the rules of professional boxing. Three judges were on hand to score the competition on a 10-point must system. Fury’s championship wasn’t at stake because Ngannou was unranked by the WBC. The bout was scheduled for 10 rounds.
33-0-1 (24) as a professional boxer vs. 0-0 as a professional boxer.
In boxing, truth is often stranger than fiction. Fury won a 96-93, 95-94, 94-95 split decision. But Tyson and boxing both
