Former heavyweight world champion Mike Tyson had his expectations surpassed by Francis Ngannou following his performance against Tyson Fury.
Ngannou impressed as he made his professional boxing debut against Fury this past weekend in Saudi Arabia, scoring a third-round knockdown of Fury on his way to a narrow split-decision defeat to the WBC heavyweight champion.
Ngannou came out of the contest with Fury with plenty of plaudits within the boxing and nullifying the narrative before the fight with Fury that he, Ngannou, would be easy pickings for the ‘Gypsy King.’
However, despite his best efforts, Ngannou was defeated with score totals of 95-94 and 96-93 in Fury’s favour against the card of 95-94 in favour of the former UFC heavyweight champion.
Ngannou worked extensively with Mike Tyson in Las Vegas in preparation to face Fury, often being praised by Tyson for his effort and his ability to box from the outset.
Tyson, post-fight, spoke to Secondsout regarding Ngannou’s showing against Fury this past weekend.
“First of all, it was a team effort, with [head coach] Dewey [Cooper], we can’t take nothing away from them,” Tyson told SecondsOut.com. “Like I said, it was a team effort, and we put our heads and hearts together and we got a performance that even we didn’t anticipate.”
Despite Tyson’s swooning praise of Ngannou, he refrained from saying that Ngannou deserved to win, despite others believing and Ngannou himself feeling that he did so.
“Hey, listen, right, it was a close fight and he had a great night with the greatest fighter ever,” Tyson said.
“Sky’s the limit for him,” Tyson said of Ngannou. “Anything, movies, people have already called me for his life story and everything.”
