Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou results, highlights: 'Gypsy King' survives knockdown, earns split decision win

Fury got more than he expected from Ngannou as he hit the canvas once and was forced to rally from an early knockdown

Tyson Fury is still the king of the mountain, but just barely. In a fight many expected him to walk through en route to his unification bout with Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday night in Saudi Arabia, Fury was bloodied, forced to get off the mat and outscore a debuting Francis Ngannou en route to a split decision win. 

Fury, who holds the WBC and lineal heavyweight crowns, was forced to fight on the outside for much of the fight as Ngannou pressed into his face and made life miserable. Fury has long utilized his height and weight in his career to lean on opponents in the clinch and wear them down. Ngannou, a former UFC heavyweight champion, was able to muscle Fury in the clinch, at times landing inside shots and sometimes throwing Fury off of him.

While an Ngannou punch bloodied Fury early, the most stunning moment of the bout came in the third round when Ngannou landed a left hand that caught Fury and dropped him to the canvas for a knockdown.

Ngannou, who sports the physique of a Greek god, appeared to fatigue toward the middle rounds of the fight but came back with furious rallies at times during the second half, leaving Fury looking more hesitant to engage than he has throughout his undefeated career.

Still, Fury did the better boxing work most rounds and, even if not in the expected dominant fashion, was able to survive the scare and win on scorecards of 94-95, 96-93, 95-94.

"No, that definitely wasn't in the script," Fury said. "He's a hell of a fighter. Strong, good puncher, a better boxer than we ever thought he'd be. ... He's a very awkard man and a good puncher. I respect him a lot. Before the fight and afterward. Listen, he was very awkward, he wasn't coming forward. He was waiting to counter my punches. He's given me one of my hardest fights in the past 10 years."

Much of the talk heading into this fight was about Fury's signed clash with WBO, IBF and WBA heavyweight champion Usyk to crown the first undisputed heavyweight champion of the four-belt era, which had a planned -- though unofficial -- date of Dec. 23. After the fight, it seemed clear Fury was not keen on keeping to that date.

"I'm going to go home," Fury said after his promoter, Frank Warren, said the same thing. "I've been in training camp for 12 weeks. Going to go home and take a long rest and decide what's next."

For Ngannou, it's difficult to see the fight as anything other than a massive win. Not only did he survive 10 rounds with the lineal heavyweight champion, but he scored a knockdown and won on one of the official scorecards in a fight that most experts believed he'd be trounced.

"I'm feeling great," Ngannou said after the fight. "I'm feeling fantastic. It didn't go my way. I might come up short today. I might be wounded but I'll come back. I'm just a fighter. I'm ready to fight any time soon. We can run it back again and I'm sure I'm going to get better. This was my first boxing match, I'm not giving any excuse. I'm going to work harder with a little more experience and come back better. Now I know I can do this shit. Get ready. A wolf is in the house."

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Ngannou noted after the fight that he could tell he was frustrating Fury early in the fight and that it cause Fury to adjust his gameplan.

"I knew he was gonna be like that. I knew that everyone who doubted my ability to box, it's going to be like that. I feel as the fight was going, his attitude was changing," Ngannou told ESPN. "Basically when I was changing to southpaw, he wasn't doing anything. When I want to rest, I switched to southpaw and he can't doing anything. 

So I realized he was having a struggle right there in that moment. But I was slowing down already, I wasn't in my best speed. I think it was in the fifth or sixth round, I kind of got him but I didn't want to go crazy because I didn't want to use too much power."

The undercard on Saturday night saw four massive finishes in the heavyweight division, mostly with overmatched competition. Moses Itauma and Aslanbek Makhumdov both earned first-round finishes to open the festivities against Istvan Bernath and Junior Anthony Wright, respectively. Plus, former WBO champ Joseph Parker got back in the win column with a third-round TKO of Simon Kean. And Fabio Wardley settled his beef with David Adeleye by stopping his foe in the seventh round.

CBS Sports was with you throughout the entire way on Saturday with the live results and highlights below. 

Fight card, results

• Tyson Fury def. Francis Ngannou via split decision (94-95, 96-93, 95-94) 
• Fabio Wardley def. David Adeleye via seventh-round TKO
• Joseph Parker def. Simon Kean via third-round TKO
• Arslanbek Makhmudov def. Junior Anthony Wright via first-round TKO
• Moses Itauma def. Istvan Bernath via first-round TKO

Fury vs. Ngannou scorecard, live coverage

Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total
Fury	10	10	8	10	10	10	9	9	10	10	96
Ngannou	9	9	10	9	9	9	10	10	9	9	93

[Oct 28, 2023 at 7:30 pm ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Official result: Tyson Fury def. Francis Ngannou via split decision (94-95, 96-93, 95-94)

[Oct 28, 2023 at 7:26 pm ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou -- Round 10: Fury avoided some big early fire from Ngannou. As the two men held back much of their offense, an uppercut in the clinch from Fury was one of the better punches from the round. Ngannou managed to survive the distance and scored a major moral victory though Fury should take this on the cards. Unofficial scorecard: 10-9 Fury (96-93)

[Oct 28, 2023 at 7:21 pm ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou -- Round 9: Ngannou with a hard left hand to start the round. Fury landed a few snapping jabs and a right hand. Ngannou landed a glancing shot with the right hand. Fury landed a jab and then a right hand. A Fury hook just missed. Fury smacked a few more good jabs. Fury again snapped a left to Ngannou's jaw. Unofficial scorecard: 10-9 Fury (86-64)

[Oct 28, 2023 at 7:17 pm ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou -- Round 8: Fury landed a right hand to get the action going. Fury missed with an uppercut and Ngannou landed a hard left hand. Fury hit two jabs and missed on an uppercut. Fury again landed a few short shots and then missed an uppercut. Ngannou landed a good combination and Fury landed a right hand before Ngannou fired back with big shots. Ngannou again landed a few good punches. Fury missed a right hand after a jab connected. Unofficial scorecard: 10-9 Ngannou (76-75 Fury)

[Oct 28, 2023 at 7:13 pm ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou -- Round 7: Ngannou threw a solid right hand and a little rear left to the body. Ngannou landed another left hand. Fury got back to the jab. Fury cracked with a good right and two more before the men tangled up and Fury was pushed to the canvas. Tight round without much happening but Ngannou may have snuck that one out. Unofficial scorecard: 10-9 Ngannou (67-65 Fury)

[Oct 28, 2023 at 7:09 pm ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou -- Round 6: Fury landed a good hook but Ngannou came back with a jab. Fury agan whipped the left hand in as Ngannou's fatigue seemed to be forcing him to push more of his punches. Fury clipped some big Ngannou shots and fired back with some jabs. Fury landed a big chopping right hand and another snapping jab. Unofficial scorecard: 10-9 Fury (58-55)

[Oct 28, 2023 at 7:05 pm ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou -- Round 5: Ngannou landed a left and Fury responded with a right. Fury just missed with a hooking uppercut. Fury connected with a sweeping right to the side of the head. A Fury jab connected. Fury landed an uppercut but didn't connect cleanly. Fury landed a big right hand and just missed with a second one.Fury stuck the jab and then another. Ngannou looks to be tiring quickly. Unofficial scorecard: 10-9 Fury (48-46)

[Oct 28, 2023 at 7:01 pm ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou -- Round 4: Ngannou landed another good right hand early. Ngannou again landed a right hand as Fury looked a bit befuddled by what has been happening. Fury landed a good left and just avoided a Ngannou right hand. Ngannou muscled Fury in the clinch, shoving him off. Fury landed two shots and another good right hand that stunned Ngannou. Unofficial scorecard: 10-9 Fury (38-37)

[Oct 28, 2023 at 6:57 pm ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou -- Round 3: Fury was back to orthodox to start the round. Both men landed heavy left hooks at the same time, neither going down. Fury again went southpaw. Ngannou landed a right hand as Fury clinched up. Fury landed a good shot but Ngannou caught Fury with a left hand and Fury went down! What a stunning moment! Fury beat the count and seemed on steady legs as the round ended. Unofficial scorecard: 10-8 Ngannou (28-28)

[Oct 28, 2023 at 6:53 pm ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou -- Round 2: Fury landed a short hook as Ngannou pushed forward. Ngannou had a left stuffed and then threw a hook to the body. Ngannou landed a good left hand and then landed a shot in the clinch as Fury is now bleeding. Fury switched southpaw and worked some jabs with his right hand before a left hand landed. Ngannou also went southpaw. Fury started to go to his standard plan of clinching to wear his opponent down. Unofficial scorecard: 10-9 Fury (20-18)

[Oct 28, 2023 at 6:48 pm ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou -- Round 1: Fury landed a right hand immediately. Fury used a bit of head movement and landed a jab and right hand on Ngannou. Fury popped off a few jabs and Ngannou whipped a right hand. The fighters clinched and Fury landed some body punches as Ngannou held on. Ngannou flicked a few jabs and tested out the body. Fury landed a big right hand clearly to Ngannou's jaw and then slipped the return fire. Fury landed another good jab. Unofficial scorecard: 10-9 Fury

[Oct 28, 2023 at 6:45 pm ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Intros are over and the fight is about to begin!

[Oct 28, 2023 at 6:37 pm ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Fury and Ngannou are (finally) in the ring. Just a bit more pageantry and we should have a fight on our hands.

[Oct 28, 2023 at 6:26 pm ET · Brent Brookhouse]

Bruce Buffer is now ready to introduce the fighters for the ring walks more than 85 minutes after the final undercard bout.