The manager of Tyson Fury, Spencer Brown has offered several reasons why Fury performed below the standard many had expected of him last weekend as the WBC heavyweight world champion toiled and eeked a split decision victory over former UFC heavyweight champion and professional boxing debutant, Francis Ngannou.
Ngannou (0-1) was able to drop Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) heavily to the canvas in the third round of the scheduled ten rounds and prove that he [Ngannou] was at least competent as a professional boxer.
Ngannou still disputes the points defeat, feeling that he did more than enough, in his opinion, to hand Fury the maiden loss on his record.
Speaking to Boxing King Media, manager Brown, gave potential reasons in his opinion why Fury was under-par in his opinion. Reasons given include a 45-minute delay while in a corridor as the pre-fight the pre-fight entertainment was in full swing.
“Some things people are right about. We were held up in a corridor for 45 minutes. That’s not an excuse, but you’re warmed up, you get ready, then he’s in a corridor, 45 minutes later we’re still there because the dancers were still on.
Maybe he’s overdone it. We went to the Champion’s Dinner the night before – that’s probably my fault, but we were contracted to do it. Ngannou was there as well but I do hold myself responsible for that. It’s just not heard of that you do stuff like that.
Maybe we’d have liked the fight earlier. It was very late at night. We’re not used to that. Should have perhaps prepared for that. But listen, Tyson’s a consummate professional. That was not Tyson what we saw.”
To Fury’s credit, when speaking to IFLTV, he insisted that the only person to blame for his performance was himself and nobody else.
“I just got a little bit greedy – hit him with a one-two down the pipe, clean, and I went to jump back in for another one-two and he got me on the way out.
“There’s no who to blame. Blame me. There’s no blame the trainer, blame the manager, blame the cutman. Blame me if you’re gonna blame anybody. It was what it was. It’s the fight game, not tap dancing. You go in there and have a fight.”
“There is no excuses. You’re in there on the night. I did the best I could, that’s it … It was a tough fight, he was a good, game man.”
