Punch stats from Tyson Fury v Francis Ngannou fight shed new light on controversial clash

Tyson Fury managed to cling onto his unbeaten record - however, punch stats show the crossover match in a new light.

After surviving a knockout, Fury was crowned the winner in his clash with Francis Ngannou.

But not everyone agrees that the Gypsy King should have come out on top in the fight, which was dubbed the 'Battle of the Baddest'.

After a successful career in the UFC, this was Ngannou’s first step into the boxing world.

He managed to put his 6ft 9ins rival on the canvas in the third round with a powerful punch.

Although he gave the boxer a serious run for his money, Fury came out on top through a split decision.

Former world champ Carl Frampton, Chris Eubank Jnr and Ngannou himself have all expressed discontent with the result.

The boxer told ESPN MMA: "If he [Tyson] was being honest, he would say that I won that fight.

"I won that fight. There’s not a question about it. I wasn’t expecting to just win like that in decision.

"There’s a structure, there’s a business out there. I did my best. Maybe next time I should just do better to convince people."

And now, punch stats from the highly anticipated clash have been released, shedding new light on the result.

It turns out that despite Ngannou's best efforts, Fury managed to land more punches over the ten rounds.

According to CompuBox, the Salford-born star managed to land 71 of the 223 jabs he threw at his opponent.

On the other hand, Ngannou threw 231 punches but only made contact with 59 of his attempts.

Fury also reigned supreme in six of the ten rounds, while Ngannou had his time to shine in the third, fourth and eight rounds.

Ngannou did land more power punches than the 35-year-old, however, racking up 37 to Fury's 32.

Ngannou lost the decision, but won the night, outlanding Fury 37-32 in power shots and dropping Fury in round 3. Fury had a 71-59 edge in landed punches. Ngannou might want back the last 2 rounds, when he landed just 6 of 38 punches to 13 of 37 for Fury. pic.twitter.com/KmusCCvF9I

— CompuBox (@CompuBox) October 28, 2023

Hopefully the stats will provide some more clarity for boxing fans who were baffled by the decision.

But some conspiracists are suggesting that, ahead of the highly-anticipated Fury vs Usyk, boxing fanatics wanted Fury to go into the fight still undefeated, claiming that this was the reason why he narrowly escaped a loss on Saturday night.

Fury announced his face off with the Ukrainian boxer, who was ringside for Saturday night's fight, would take place on 23 December in Saudi Arabia.

Fury had previously told TNT Sports: "The fans want it and if the money's there we'll do it.

"Why on in the world would I want to fight [Usyk] for no money, he's got zero personality, he's an ugly b******d with gappy teeth and he's half the size of me, so it's all to gain for him and nothing to gain for me, isn't it?"