RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – If there was any doubt whether or not Francis Ngannou belongs in the heavyweight boxing world, it was answered Saturday.
Former UFC heavyweight champion Ngannou (0-1 boxing) lost a close split decision to WBC heavyweight champ Tyson Fury in Saudi Arabia. Fury’s title wasn’t on the line, and in fact he already had his next title defense booked before he stepped foot in the ring with Ngannou.
But after the Cameroon native knocked the unbeaten Fury down in the third round – the fight’s only knockdown – and won the fight with one of the three judges, his confidence for what he can do in the sweet science compared to MMA must have grown exponentially.
After the fight, his striking coach at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas, Dewey Cooper, told MMA Junkie that Ngannou’s boxing future is a bright one.
“I thought we won the fight with the knockdown,” Cooper said ringside after the fight. “It was a back-and-forth fight. I feel like it was probably even on the rounds, but the knockdown should’ve given us the advantage, like the one judge had it – 95-94 is how I scored it. I even told Francis the last round, ‘You’ve got to stay sharp – don’t let him steal this fight.’
“I thought we had won it closely. But (even losing) this fight closely is a magnificent accomplishment. Everybody – you (media), every-f*cking-body said we had no shot. Everybody said he’d get knocked out tonight, and what did he do? He dropped the champ – the prime, undefeated champ. His first fight out (in boxing), he went 10 rounds with the same energy as the champ.”
The talk immediately after the fight was not only debate over whether or not Ngannou won, despite it being his boxing debut, but whether Fury’s next fight should be a rematch with Ngannou and not a title unification fight with Oleksandr Usyk. Alternatively, Ngannou could eschew an official MMA move to the PFL and instead box another heavyweight standout.
And Cooper thinks that might be a valid option for Ngannou because, he said, Ngannou could be a top 10-ranked heavyweight boxer this week.
“Absolutely, (he’s set up for another big fight),” Cooper said. “Mauricio Sulaiman, the president of the WBC, said he’s going to rank him in the top 10 because he’s better than most of the (boxing) heavyweights in the top 10. He said that (to Ngannou) in the ring. So absolutely, you’ll see him (box) again.”
Regardless of when, where or against whom he’ll fight next, Ngannou proved he knew what he was doing when he bet on himself by leaving the UFC while still heavyweight champion – and walked away from what CEO Dana White said would have made him the highest paid heavyweight in company history.
Now Cooper thinks Ngannou will start to truly garner respect in the combat sports world, even if he disputes the scoring that left his fighter without his hand raised.
“I felt like we won the fight by a round or two, but this is why boxing is going on a decline – a slight decline – well, except for Saudi Arabia,” Cooper said. “Boxing is now a business disguised as a sport. We need to keep it real and make these decisions as transparent as possible. At the end of the day, it didn’t go our way. But I’m proud of Francis. He went 30 minutes. He went 25 minutes with that other company, the UFC, on one leg, and now he went 30 minutes in his first boxing fight. If those aren’t accomplishments, I don’t know what is.”
For more on the matchup, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Fury vs. Ngannou.
