Barry McGuigan’s traditional opinion on who won between Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou

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As the global shock from October 28th’s boxing match between Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou continues to reverberate, a respectable writer, Barry McGuigan, said who he thought won the match and his take on the athletes’ performance. His take bordered on the traditional.

Contrary to the expectations of most fans and pundits, Francis Ngannou stood strong against his opponent, the WBC champion, and even knocked him down during the third round. Many conservative fans of boxing have been speaking since then.

Barry McGuigan wrote, ‘A mea culpa from me. I was wrong about Francis Ngannou. He can box, as his performance against Tyson Fury in Saudi Arabia showed.

‘He obviously had some exposure to it before he migrated to France and began his MMA career. However, contrary to the opinion of many, Fury deserved to get the result.

‘Though in winning the fight he did not cover himself in glory. And despite the wild reaction to Ngannou’s display, I’m not sure he has re-invented the wheel. Ngannou is one dimensional with a long, left hook and a good right hand. There were no sequences to his punching. He cannot put combinations together effectively.

‘Fury fell over Ngannou’s straight right then walked into a clubbing left hook. Fury wasn’t hurt, but it changed the complexion of the fight completely.’

According to Mike Tyson, just before the bout, Tyson Fury was attacking Francis Ngannou psychologically, especially in the incident where Fury walked up to Ngannou and tried to push him off the weighing scale with his head. Tyson said this was Tyson Fury trying to weaken Ngannou’s heart, and he openly wished Ngannou would attack Fury aggressively during the match instead of being scared and defensive. Ngannou did just that.

McGuigan spoke further in his writing: ‘Fury should have been able to outbox Ngannou and get him out of there. He never got close to that. Fury is not a devastating puncher. He is tall with decent hand speed, light on his feet, and moves well. But he did not use his range or his skill.

‘Ngannou is a big, strong fella, but should not have been good enough to take the world champion ten rounds, especially as he seemed to run out of gas in the latter rounds. His moment came early. The knockdown changed everything. Fury was nervous and circumspect after that. I’m not sure Fury took him seriously enough.’

One of the things McGuigan seemed oblivious to was that every athlete gets beaten and that exploits should be celebrated and congratulated, not diminished.

As fans of combat sports await a rematch between the two, Tyson Fury will have to go into the ring first with Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed world heavyweight title bout, which is scheduled for next year.

On the other hand, Francis Ngannou is being wooed for a fight contract by Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua.