Contrary to many pundits, UFC bantamweight champion Sean O'Malley believes the judges got it right when scoring Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou.
Former UFC heavyweight champion Ngannou lost a close split decision to Fury in their crossover boxing match this past Saturday in Saudi Arabia. Ngannou hung with Fury throughout the 10 rounds and managed to score the only knockdown of the fight in Round 3.
O’Malley admits he could be biased in his judgement but thinks, outside of the knockdown, that Fury won the majority of the fight.
“I personally was kind of going for Tyson the whole time just because, I don’t know, I like to watch the show,” O’Malley said on his “TimboSugarShow” podcast. “I was going for Tyson, so when I watched the fight maybe I was a little bias toward Tyson.
“I thought he won the fight. He got dropped obviously. … I might have a little bias. I have to go rewatch it. I just thought he outboxed him. He just simply outboxed him. There was one 10-8, that was the round he got dropped, but I thought he won the majority of the rounds.”
O’Malley said that, with the power Ngannou possesses, he wasn’t necessarily surprised “The Predator” was able to put up such a good fight.
“It’s just crazy when you’re that big, and you have a shutoff in your right hand and his left hook, his left hook is what dropped him,” O’Malley said. “He has a shutoff in both. He’s naturally gifted, 100 percent.
“Obviously massive, hits harder than anyone. He’s just got the shutoff in both hands, and that’s all you can do in boxing. So I wasn’t expecting him to not be good. He had months and months and months and months to prepare. He’s naturally just an athlete.”
