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WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury barely avoided the first professional boxing defeat of his career after he survived a third-round knockdown to eke out a split decision victory against former UFC champion Francis Ngannou at a boxing event Saturday night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Ngannou (0-1 in boxing) dominated the crossover bout, appearing to be the much stronger, and more comfortable, fighter in the ring throughout the ten-round fight against Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs).
Fury got a first taste of Ngannou's power in round two, as a cut opened on the forehead of the Gypsy King when he ate a left hook.
The Gypsy King from Manchester, England, looking ill-prepared and sluggish, hit the canvas in the third round when Ngannou connected with the same left hook, behind the right ear.
Apparently still reeling from the impact of that shot, Fury struggled to find his rhythm until the fifth round when he caught the Cameroonian-French MMA fighter with a straight one-two combination.
Overall, Fury, 35, sometimes appeared to be barely holding on, as he showed no real urgency while Ngannou,37, pushed the pace up the final bell.
One judge scored it for the former UFC heavyweight champion, 95-94, but was overruled by tallies of 96-93 and 95-94 for Fury from the other judges. Fury's WBC heavyweight title wasn't on the line in the 10-round boxing match.
The split decision announcement elicited boos from the crowd in the arena, as some on social media believe Ngannou was robbed of victory to save the face of professional boxing against an MMA fighter.
"That definitely wasn't in the script," Fury told TNT Sports. "I got caught round the back of the head [for the knockdown]. I wasn't hurt. I got up and got back to my boxing. He's an awkward man and a good puncher and I respect him a lot. He's given me one of my toughest fights of the last 10 years."
"My training camp was only three and a half months and I came into this with an injury," Ngannou said. "But I don't want to give excuses. I will look at what I can do next to improve my game to come back even better. Now I know I can do this, get ready. The wolf is in the house."
Fury's victory means a blockbuster bout with fellow heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, who holds the WBA, WBO and IBF titles, which has been signed, remains on the horizon.
That fight is already signed and planned for Dec. 23 in Riyadh, but it's unclear if it will happen on that date, as a cut and bruised Fury might struggle to turnaround so quickly.
"It will be our next fight guaranteed," Fury said, however.
Earlier in the night, Fabio Wardley retained his British heavyweight title as he stopped David Adeleye in the seventh round. The build-up to the bout had been ill-tempered, Wardley entering the ring with a cut on the chin from when the pair clashes at a press conference last month, and both went into the 12-round fight having never previously been beyond six.
That changed as the fight ticked into a seventh round, with Wardley increasingly taking control and he cemented that by dropping his rival. Adeleye just about beat the count, but with Wardley letting his hands go and tagging him at will, the referee jumped in to wave it off.
There were much more routine wins on the undercard for Moses Itauma and Arslanbek Makhmudov, both getting the job done in the opening round, while Joseph Parker stopped Simon Kean in the third after landing two huge uppercuts.
WATCH the highlight of the Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou boxing match.