"He couldn’t close the distance" - Tyson Fury breaks silence on 'clear' victory over Francis Ngannou amid outcry over decision

World heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury faced off against ex-UFC heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou this past weekend in a blockbuster headliner in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Ngannou put on an excellent performance on the night and a solid account of himself as a boxer in his professional debut. He thoroughly impressed fans and viewers by going the distance of 10 rounds, a first for him with his mixed martial arts background. Many viewers and fans on social media believed he was the winner on the night.

However, it was the vastly experienced Fury who took home the win on October 28 via a split decision on the judges' scorecards (94-95, 96-93, 95-94).

Tyson Fury spoke to iFL TV in the aftermath of the fight and gave his take on the split decision victory. He maintained that he was comfortably the victor and mentioned that Francis Ngannou won no more than two rounds, including the third round when 'The Predator' dropped 'The Gypsy King' for only the seventh time in his storied career.

The WBC heavyweight champion said:

“He won the 10-8 [knockdown] round and maybe one other round, but other than that I was just boxing and he couldn’t close the distance down on me, so, at points it was tough but not so much the other way. I’m not a judge, but I can clearly see he didn’t win the fight by the punch stats. And if he would have won the fight, did they give it to him on the night? It wasn’t my own show, was it? We’re both away fighters and um, whatever.”

Check out Tyson Fury's full comments in his interview below [2:38]:

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Francis Ngannou reacts after loss to Tyson Fury - "Tyson should say thank you to those 2 judges"

Francis Ngannou was not in agreement with the judges' scorecards, which resulted in a split decision loss for him on his professional boxing debut against the lineal boxing heavyweight champion of the world.

Ngannou not only went the distance but also managed to knock down Tyson Fury in the third round. On the contrary, Fury did not manage a knockdown on the Cameroonian.

Ngannou took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to react to the loss and blamed the judges, implying that poor officiating cost him a win. He wrote:

"Tyson should say thank you to those 2 judges because I didn't win this fight [face with rolling eyes emoji] #FuryvsNgannou #RiyadhSeason"

Check out his post below on X: