The punch stats for Tyson Fury’s controversial win over Francis Ngannou have been released – and they are slightly embarrassing for the WBC heavyweight champion.
Fury, 35, was awarded a contentious split-decision victory over Ngannou after their 10-round heavyweight fight in Saudi Arabia on Saturday night.
The ‘Gypsy King’ looked out of sorts throughout his fight against the former UFC heavyweight champion, who was making his professional boxing debut.
Despite being knocked down in the third round, Fury was given the win 96-93 and 95-94 on two of the judges’ cards, with the other judge scoring it 95-94 for Ngannou. Check out the knockdown below.
The final scores have proved to be controversial, with an illegal elbow by Fury in the sixth round not spotted by the referee.
Ngannou caused major problems for Fury throughout the bout and took to social media afterwards to express his frustration.
“Tyson should say thank you to those 2 judges because I didn’t win this fight,” he posted on X.
He then shared a post from Mike Tyson, which read: “The true champ of the evening @francis_ngannou. So proud how you performed.”
According to Compubox, Fury landed 71 of his 223 total punches, while Ngannou managed to score with 59 from 231.
Fury landed more punches than his opponent in six of the 10 rounds.
Ngannou lost the decision, but won the night, outlanding Fury 37-32 in power shots and dropping Fury in round 3. Fury had a 71-59 edge in landed punches. Ngannou might want back the last 2 rounds, when he landed just 6 of 38 punches to 13 of 37 for Fury.
While Fury did edge total punches landed, Ngannou landed more power punches than the lineal heavyweight champion, with 37 to Fury’s 32.
With the stats so close, Ngannou can count himself unlucky to have lost out on the judges’ scorecards, especially when considering the knockdown and the illegal elbow which wasn’t spotted by the referee.
Fury is now set to face unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed title, with the fight expected to take place early next year.