Hall of Fame trainer Teddy Atlas does not see any controversy in the outcome of last Saturday’s crossover heavyweight fight between Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou.
Fury had his share of struggles in winning a close ten round split decision win over Ngannou, who was making his pro debut in professional boxing.
Ngannou stunned everyone when he dropped Fury in the third with a left hand, and then fought the unbeaten WBC champion on even terms for the rest of the fight.
Atlas had the fight clearly scored in favor of Fury.
“My final score – 97-93 for Mr. Fury and like I said [in] my comments, lots of posturing, feinting, half jabs, lot of looking, could have been more even rounds possibly,” Atlas stated on The Fight with Teddy Atlas.
The official judges had it a little closer, with two scoring 96-93 and 95-94 for Fury, while a third had it 95-94 for Ngannou.
Atlas does not believe Fury prepared for a tough high-stakes contest and ultimately he was mentally unprepared for Ngannou – as a deal was already in place for Fury to collide with WBO, WBA, IBF, IBO champion Oleksandr Usyk on December 23.
Adding to that, Atlas was not surprised with the knockdown because he viewed Ngannou as the true heavyweight power puncher in the contest.
“[Fury was] not unprepared physically but perhaps mentally. [Ngannou] was the puncher in this fight no doubt about it. Fury is a terrific fighter, a terrific boxer and everything else but he’s not the pure puncher. He’s a big guy, he hits you, he knocks out certain guys, he knocked out Wilder twice I mean, he hits you with all that size, he hits you right of course he’s a puncher but pure TNT, only certain guys have it and I think the guy who really had it that night in a pure way is probably Ngannou,” Atlas said.