Former UFC champion Francis Ngannou said there was a lot of trash talking going on during his super fight with boxing champion Tyson Fury.
He claimed to get the better of the verbal exchange, especially after he knocked down Fury in front of a shocked boxing crowd in Saudi Arabia.
“When we got closer and touched gloves, he said, ‘Let me take you to school,’” Ngannou said in Boxing Scene. “I’m like, ‘You (expletive), you are not taking me to school.’”
“That’s why, when I knocked him down, I was dancing in front of him, like, ‘You a bad professor, (expletive). You a bad professor. How is that school going? Who is taking who to school? Because to me, it looks like I’m the one taking you to school.’ That was the language that I was expressing at that time. Who was taking who to school?”
To the surprise of fans, Ngannou, who made his boxing debut against Fury, was doing well in the ring against someone considered a boxing technician.
The heavy-handed Cameroonian cut Fury’s forehead with an uppercut and even battered the Briton viciously in the eighth round.
But the fight was close, according to the eyes of the judges. Two of them had it 95-94 and 96-93 for Fury, and the other one scored it for Ngannou, 95-94.
“I feel pretty good,” Ngannou said. “I wasn’t so busted up in the fight. I got hit a couple times, but not too badly, so I was able to manage not to get damaged. So I feel pretty good. And regardless of the decision, personally, I am satisfied with my performance.”
“I know that I could have done better, and I will go back and get better. But I really believe I didn’t come up short in this fight. I believe that I stood toe to toe with the number one boxer in the world for my first match, and I basically won the fight.”
