Dewey Cooper, the trainer of MMA star and boxing debutant Francis Ngannou, believes that his fighter had done enough to upset Tyson Fury in their 10-round boxing match last Saturday night.
Francis Ngannou’s Trainer believes they won the fight “by a round or two”
Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou squared off in Riyadh on October 28th, marking Ngannou’s debut into boxing. The former UFC heavyweight champion, despite being the underdog, proved to be a much tougher challenge for Fury, even dropping the WBC heavyweight champ in the third round, and kept on troubling him throughout the rest of the fight.
The bout ended with a controversial split decision for Fury- with two judges scoring it 95-94 and 96-93 for the Brit, while the third had it 95-94 for Ngannou. The verdict has raised a lot of eyebrows, as many feel that it was actually Ngannou’s victory.
While admitting that the bout was a very close contest, Dewey Cooper told Metro.co,uk that he thought that the knockdown in the third round was the checkmate.
“I thought we won the fight with the knockdown. It was a back and forth fight but I felt like it was probably even on rounds and the knockdown should have given us the advantage – like the one judge had it, 95-94 is how I scored it. I even told Francis in the last round that he had to stay sharp, don’t let him steal the fight,” said Cooper.
“So I thought we had won it closely but even losing this fight closely is a magnificent accomplishment. Everybody, you guys [the media], everybody said we had no shot. Everybody said he was getting knocked out no matter what he do. But he dropped the champ. The prime, undefeated champ. His first fight out. He went 10 rounds with as much energy as the champ. I felt we won the fight by a round or two.
“But this is why boxing is going on a slight decline. Boxing is now a business disguised as a sport. We need to keep it real and make these decisions as transparent as possible. At the end of the day it didn’t go our way but I’m proud of Francis,” he added. [H/T Boxing Scene]
