Battle of the Baddest: Ngannou says won but robbed of victory.

Fury was ruled the winner of the Battle of the Baddest fight by split decision that is being contested by a number of high-profile boxing figures.

Ngannou stunned the newly opened Boulevard Hall Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, when he knocked the heavyweight champions down in the third round of the fight. 

The Cameroonian continued to successfully land punches long after his third-round knockdown of Fury, while it was his opponent who looked far worse at the end of the bout but was named the winner!

One of the three judges scored the fight 95-94 in favour of Ngannou but the other two handed Fury the edge 96-93 and 95-94.

Ngannou himself was diplomatic in the immediate aftermath of the fight but later stated that he won.

“… if he [Fury] is honest, he will say I won that fight. I won that fight, there’s no question about it. But even before getting here, I knew that if this fight gets to decision, I was not winning, not because I didn’t do good but because I’m a new guy in the house…,” Ngannou said in an interview.

He went on: “I wasn’t expecting to just win through a decision. It is what it is. I did my job. I know that I did everything that could be done. Maybe next time, I should just do better to convince people,”.

Ngannou further voiced his frustration on his social media handles, referring to Fury a table tennis champion.

“Fury should say thank you to those two judges because he didn't win this fight,” he said while also adding: “Table tennis champion of the world” in response to Fury claiming their fight was like Novak Djokovic taking on the world's best table tennis player.

Fury is the WBC champion and widely regarded as the leading heavyweight in the sport. He is unbeaten as a professional, while Ngannou, in contrast, was boxing as a pro for the first time in the scheduled 10-rounder.

Fury's title could not be on the line against an opponent with no professional boxing experience.

But the mixed martial arts star pushed him desperately close. After blasting Fury over with a tremendous left hook in the third, Ngannou exerted impressive control in many of the subsequent rounds, only for Fury to emerge with the narrow and controversial split-decision win.