Former UFC Heavyweight Champion Francis Ngannou suffered a controversial split decision loss to Tyson Fury in their boxing encounter this past Saturday.
Even though he came up short against Fury, Ngannou says even Fury knows who really won their battle this weekend.
“If he was being honest, (Fury) would say I won that fight,” Ngannou said in a post-fight interview with ESPN (transcript via Nolan King of MMA Junkie). “I won that fight. There’s no question about it. Even before getting here, I knew if this fight gets to a decision, I’m not winning – not because I didn’t do good, (but) because I’m the new guy in the house. I come here and I just want to kick into people’s business. There’s a structure of business out there and you need to do a lot to destroy it. … I wasn’t just expecting to win like that in a decision. But it is what it is. I do my job. I know that I did everything I could’ve done. I did my best. Maybe next time I should just do better to convince people.”
Ngannou was making his professional boxing debut in the fight, while Fury competed for the 34th time when he fought Ngannou.
A defeated Ngannou is happy with his performance against Fury, but also knows what he needs to work on for his next boxing appearance.
“This is really my first time to fight and to do a 10-round boxing match of straight boxing,” Ngannou said. “I tell myself that I didn’t do bad against the No. 1 heavyweight in the world. I’m just going to go back and focus on that and have at least that experience to work on it – that feeling to work with it and get prepared for the next time, because I think this gets me even more excited and hungry to prove I was wounded, but I realized I can bite.”