Well, yes and no. The obvious surprise was how good Francis Ngannou was; his boxing ability was way in advance of what we expected. We’ve seen so many MMA-ists attempt to box and do it pretty badly. Ngannou has shown that the transfer is achievable, and he must be given a standing ovation for his efforts.
However, should we be surprised about Tyson Fury failing to deliver? I’ll say it until I’m blue in the face, but his USP is his size. Sure, he can box, and his ring IQ is very good, but he has successfully bullied the opposition before on top of the above.
Deontay Wilder weighed in for his first two fights against Fury, only a little above the cruiserweight limit. Klitschko was also a big guy who was relatively limited and used his size very well to dominate smaller men. If Fury was the same size as Usyk, there is no way I could see a victory for him. The fact that he is essentially two weight classes bigger is a phenomenal leveler.
In something of a first, Fury was in with a guy who was as big as he was this time and a lot more athletic and stronger to boot. Suddenly, Fury wasn’t able to manhandle his man in the clinch; it was he who was being mauled. Throw in Ngannou’s interesting strategy, and is it any surprise there was suddenly a hint of uncertainty in Fury’s eyes? His historic main weapon in his arsenal had just been neutralized.
More importantly, Fury clearly hadn’t trained properly and thought all he needed to do was turn up. Boxing may be a skill first, but athleticism helps, too. Doughnut crunching certainly doesn’t help the preparation for a fight. Ngannou is a superb athlete, a champion fighter in his own sport, can clearly punch very hard, has a back story to match Fury’s, and wanted to be a boxer initially. At the very least, this guy deserved maximum respect.
Instead, it looks like Fury’s preparation was lackluster, to say the least. He has form here, of course, because he gets away with things by virtue of his size. This time, however, he weighed in heavy even for him. The roll of fat going down his body when he was knocked down remains the most telling image of the fight for me.
If there was going to be an upset, he was kind of asking for it with his lack of preparation and not fully respecting his very dangerous opponent. Was there even a nutritionist or S&C guy in his camp, I wonder? Isn’t this Fury getting his just desserts (pun intended)? Maybe it’s a wake-up call. Either way, should we really have all been that astonished, given the lack of professionalism from the WBC champion?
Finally, whilst Ngannou excelled and Fury had a shocker, it has to be said we all need to calm down a bit. This wasn’t a handicap match. It’s not YouTube Land or the WWE. This was a proper boxing match. Ngannou didn’t score more points because he exceeded expectations, and Fury didn’t get less because he was poor. At the end of the day, Fury was much busier with his pot shots, and he clearly outscored Ngannou. It was a poor performance but still a clear victory. There was no robbery; let’s all just take a chill pill and relax!