Introduction
Firstly, I would like to congratulate Francis Ngannou, as he performed better than I had anticipated, and scored a knockdown.
I must emphasise, that Fury’s lacklustre performance may derive from his lack of activity since his last bout.
Of course, athletes should in my opinion, maintain a good degree of fitness even when outside of competition.
I will start by talking about my thoughts on the main event, and then the rest of the card.
Fury lacked confidence in his performance, neglected the uppercut, was flicking his jabs and then occasionally following with the cross.
Ngannou was looking for counters whilst maintaining an upright stance, not moving around very much, conserving energy.
Ngannou was effectively countering Fury’s right-hands with left-hooks, even scoring a knockdown around the mid-way mark of the fight.
As the fight progressed, Ngannou had grown in confidence, and didn’t demonstrate issues with his conditioning, as some speculated that he would.
Fury was awarded the decision, a split-decision, which was controversial by-and-large; I had personally felt that Ngannou had won the fight.
The Fight Card
Firstly, for this segment of this article, I would like to congratulate Fabio Wardley, who had a great performance against David Adeleye, and got the TKO in the 7th-round.
Wardley was on the front-foot throughout the entirety of this fight, relying on his reflexes and his jab to setup the straight-right.
Adeleye, on the other hand, had chose to box on the outside, mostly relying on the jab early in the fight, and the left-hook later in the fight.
Whilst Adeleye did have success, and had landed power-punches in some of the exchanges, Wardley’s punches had a more devastating effect.
Secondly, I will now discuss the following fight on the card:
Makhudov delivered a devastating, albeit, crude performance; the 6″5 34 year-old Russian destroyed his opponent in the first round, and will continue to progress with his career as a prospect and contender.
Makhmudov is an incredibly hard-puncher, but is yet to be properly tested.
Thirdly, Joseph Parker performed greatly against Simon Kean, delivering a 3rd-round KO win; Parker had landed a right-uppercut, Parker had noticed that Kean kept his guard wide, and was exposed to this punch.
Final Thoughts
Overall, good selection of fights on the card, but the main event simply didn’t deliver, I certainly expected more punch-output, and a stronger performance from Tyson Fury.
Please refer to the following post for my predictions
