Tyson Fury was crushed by a deep knockdown – Kommersant

The most unexpected, strangest fight of the year turned into one of its main events in professional boxing. Making his debut in the “adjacent” form of mixed martial arts (MMA) heavyweight, former champion of the UFC – their main promotion – Francis Ngannou almost defeated the outstanding champion of the World Boxing Council (WBC) Tyson Fury, who is going to become the absolute champion in the coming months. During the fight in Saudi Arabia, Fury was knocked down and won by a split decision and contrary to statistics. In it, the Cameroonian surpassed the British in some key indicators.

A person who, while waiting for the end of a protracted show in Riyadh, took a nap during the warm-up and opened his eyes again after the crowning fight of the tournament was left behind, must have thought that, fortunately, there was nothing really interesting after all. missed it. What took place in the arena was what the Americans call a stairdown—an exchange of views between the participants in the future top battle. Opposite each other, almost end to end, stood Tyson Fury and Alexander Usik, who recently agreed that either at the end of December, or a little later, here in Saudi Arabia, they would fight for the status of the absolute world heavyweight champion, putting their belts on the line: the British – the World Boxing Council, the Ukrainian – the International Boxing Federation (IBF), the World Boxing Association (WBA) and the World Boxing Organization (WBO). And this stairdown was, of course, written into the script in advance as a completely natural, or perhaps, ending: Fury clearly wins the fight, which was perceived as a “warm-up” for him before the fight with Usik, and then, tired but satisfied, he seals the agreement on a fight with the mega-cool meaning and level of a symbolic procedure, which in his profession is more important than signing a contract.

But the viewer who slept through Tyson Fury’s performance was bound to be pricked and alerted by his appearance: a thoroughly black eye, an expression on his face that was not at all similar to that of a triumphant—somehow slightly guilty. A facial expression that makes you quickly watch the fight in the recording in order to understand why the stairdown went a little contrary to the script, and after watching it, you feel a real shock, since even ESPN observers who have seen a lot of it experienced it, admitting that they had never seen anything like it in their lives.

There has been ample evidence recently that mixed martial arts striking techniques are nil when it comes to confronting a boxer on his own turf, that is, in a boxing match. In 2017, Floyd Mayweather made fun of Conor McGregor. Later, blogger Jake Paul, who became interested in boxing, beat a whole squad of excellent MMA fighters who challenged him: Ben Askren, Tyron Woodley, Anderson Silva, Nate Diaz. There seemed to be no reason to believe that Francis Ngannou would buck the trend, despite the fact that he earned a championship title and fame in the UFC before falling out with its management at the beginning of the year and running away thanks solely to his crazy punching power rather than his wrestling skills . In the end, he, like McGregor, had to face not a semi-amateur like Paul, but an unconditional, heavyweight, universally recognized, unique talent. But Ngannou almost performed a miracle.

This fight was undoubtedly a hymn to the patience and wisdom of the coaches – Eric Nicksik, Dewey Cooper and the great Mike Tyson, who joined the training of the Cameroonian, who worked with Francis Ngannou, who had never practiced boxing as an independent genre.

It was a hymn to the discipline and composure of Ngannou himself, who perfectly embodied all of their principles in the ring. And among other things, he pointed out the vulnerability of Tyson Fury.

It was obvious that he was uncomfortable even before the third round. From the outside it seemed that Fury was simply dumbfounded by the tactics of his opponent, who, contrary to the advice of experts unrelated to his training process, refused to constantly move, sometimes simply froze in front of the Briton, but at the same time in vain looked like an easy target, because everything was decided by the perfect timing when attacking read it in advance and immediately respond to it, and a sense of distance. And for some reason she is always in such a way that it is convenient for Ngannou – not close to the opponent, but not at such a distance from him that he would shoot, straightening his long arm. But it allows, if necessary, to clinch and break the rhythm.

Plus, the hopeless outsider sees everything and, as it were, mimics the one hundred percent favorite, mirrors him, together with him, for example, changing his stance, as if teasing the champion.

And in the third round something absolutely thunderous happened. Tyson Fury once again tried to shoot in a series and once again ran into an answer. Only now a left hook from Ngannou hit him in the temple, convincingly demonstrating how the Cameroonian earned the right to be called the best puncher ever to appear in mixed martial arts. Fury collapsed on the floor, and it was a fairly deep knockdown, the kind that takes a long time to recover from.

The Briton somehow digested the shock, but even having learned a lesson, he still could not adapt to the specific manner of Francis Ngannou, to his reaction, to his stone calmness, which cannot be shaken by anything. And Ngannou, even closer to the finish of the ten-round fight, found opportunities to give Tyson Fury a good beating.

Before this fight, it was difficult to imagine that everything in it could come down to the announcement of the score on the judges’ cards. It was even harder to imagine that the score would be impossible to guess. In the end, Tyson Fury was lucky. One referee sided with Francis Ngannou, scoring 95:94 in his favor. The other two gave the win to the Briton – 95:94 and 96:93. And the version that Fury’s success was largely brought about by the script, which did not include his misfire, was supported by statistics from CompuBox. The Briton had more hits than the Cameroonian – 71 versus 59. But he threw punches more often – 231 versus 223, and most importantly, more often sent accented strikes to the target.

Fury had 32 of them versus 37 for Ngannou, who, despite the defeat, presumably, in the perception of everyone responsible for professional boxing, transformed from an upstart who wanted to make quick money with an experiment into a serious player in the market.

So serious that next to his name, when discussing the prospects and plans of the Cameroonian, it is not a shame to put the names of the most respected competitors of Tyson Fury and Alexander Usik – Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder. This evening seemed to have significantly adjusted the balance in the heavyweight division.

Alexey Dospehov