{"id":869837,"date":"2026-08-27T04:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T04:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/869837\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T04:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T04:32:12","slug":"tyson-fury-claims-he-never-trained-for-francis-ngannou-in-controversial-2023-win-its-just-an-exhibition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/869837\/","title":{"rendered":"Tyson Fury claims he never trained for Francis Ngannou in controversial 2023 win: “It’s just an exhibition”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trending:Pros react after Islam Makhachev defeats Ian Machado Garry at UFC 330<\/a>\"FrancisDAZN<\/p>\n

Francis Ngannou shocked the boxing world in 2023 despite suffering a controversial loss to Tyson Fury, but \u201cThe Gypsy King\u201d insists he never trained for the bout.<\/p>\n

When Fury was booked for an exhibition boxing match against Fury, the outcome was basically a foregone conclusion to boxing experts. In fact, many expected Fury to let \u201cThe Predator\u201d hang around before ultimately finishing him. Things played out far differently, as it was the former UFC Heavyweight Champion who dropped Fury during their match.<\/p>\n

The bout was far more competitive than most were anticipating, but Fury edged out the split decision win<\/a>. Nearly three full years later, Fury told ALF Global<\/a> that he didn\u2019t take the fight seriously enough to train (h\/t MMAFighting<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I didn\u2019t not train for him because I didn\u2019t think he was a good fighter,\u201d Fury said. \u201cI knew he was a good fighter, but to me it\u2019s levels to boxing. So if I\u2019m fighting a world champion, then in my mind, he\u2019s a world champion, everything\u2019s good. But when you do an exhibition fight, play, it wasn\u2019t really a fight, do you understand what I\u2019m saying. It wasn\u2019t, in my mind, a fight, it\u2019s just an exhibition, a game.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo him, to Ngannou, it was, \u2018Aaaah, big fight, I fight Tyson Fury!\u2019 To me, it was play, a game, you know what I mean?\u201d<\/p>\n

The success Ngannou found in his bout with Fury did not carry over for his clash with Anthony Joshua in March 2024. He ended up suffering a second-round knockout loss to the former heavyweight champion. Ngannou hasn\u2019t stepped back inside the boxing ring since, but he has returned to MMA to score two devastating knockout wins over Renan Ferreira and Philipe Lins.<\/p>\n

As for Fury, he has gone 2-0 since losing two title fights against Oleksandr Usyk. The surefire future International Boxing Hall of Famer took a unanimous decision victory over Arslanbek Makhmudov back in April, and he followed that up with a TKO finish over Mariusz Wach in July.<\/p>\n

Do you think Tyson Fury was truly unprepared for Francis Ngannou, or is this an excuse for his performance? Sound off in the comments below.<\/p>\n

This article appeared first on BJPENN.COM<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trending:Pros react after Islam Makhachev defeats Ian Machado Garry at UFC 330DAZN Francis Ngannou shocked the boxing world…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-869837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}