"Everybody will go down" - Francis Ngannou asserts that landing a clean blow would have knocked out Tyson Fury in the 10th round
WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury felt Francis Ngannou’s legendary power in their October 28 boxing match. Although Ngannou had never competed professionally as a boxer, he gave Fury one of the toughest fights of his career.
The Cameroonian fighter lost the ten-round contest via split decision. However, he scored the only knockdown of the fight, which is widely regarded as a huge moral victory for him.
Francis Ngannou recently made an appearance on the recent episode of 'Club Shay Shay' podcast. While discussing the fight, he claimed that the left hand that dropped Fury in round three didn’t even land clean.
“It wasn’t a strong punch! So I knew that he was going to get back up. The punch hit his shoulder first and then caught him at the temple.”
Host Shannon Sharpe was curious to know if Ngannou could knock Tyson Fury out with a perfectly placed punch. ‘The Predator’ went on to assert that a perfectly placed strike from him could knock out any fighter, including Tyson Fury. He said:
“Everyone! Everybody would go down with that one. Basically, in the tenth round, you see fresh… Everyone will go down with a clean shot!”
Watch Francis Ngannou discuss the knockdown from the 08:15 mark of the video below:
Francis Ngannou explains the sequence leading up to the knockdown in the Tyson Fury fight
Francis Ngannou made his boxing debut against one of the best heavyweight boxers of all time Tyson Fury. The perceived skill disparity between the two and lack of experience on Ngannou's part were considered the biggest factors leading to the fight.
The combat sports community has been struggling to understand how the newcomer nearly finished the heavyweight champion. Continuing further in the 'Club Shay Shay' podcast, Francis Ngannou explained everything that happened in the moments leading up to the knockdown. ‘The Predator’ said:
“That was even a counter. That wasn’t something I prepared. I saw that when he walked at me in the third round, I think it was, for him, a moment to finish the fight. Kind of like, ‘okay, we are done. Let’s go home now.’ Because when the fight started, he was like, ‘Let’s go to school.’ When we got to the third round, he was acting like he was just going to walk me down. Then, I’m not backing up. So I put my hand up and waited for him. In order to push him, I had to counter. Then he got caught in that moment.”
Francis Ngannou has been calling for a rematch with Tyson Fury and intends to continue fighting in boxing as well as MMA. It will be interesting to see how his career plays out.