Teddy Atlas reveals his Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou scorecard

Legendary boxing trainer Teddy Atlas disclosed his scorecard for the Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou fight.  

“I’m not going to ever attack someone when they’re down.  And Fury’s not down, but his reputation, maybe his legacy was smacked a little bit,” Atlas said on “THE FIGHT with Teddy Atlas” podcast.  “I’m not going to jump and, ‘Oh my God, he’s terrible, he’s that.  He didn’t look great.  No doubt about it.  You don’t need Teddy Atlas.  As a matter of fact, there were spots where he looked bad.”

Fury, the WBC and lineal heavyweight champion, fought former UFC heavyweight titleholder Francis Ngannou in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Oct. 28.  It was Ngannou’s boxing debut, and the fight went the distance.  Fury got the nod from the judges and won the bout via split decision.  The official scorecard read 95-94, 94-95 and 96-93.  

Tyson Fury vs Francis Ngannou official judges’ scorecards… pic.twitter.com/AmZNiNycxw

— Michael Benson (@MichaelBensonn) October 29, 2023

Many people believe Ngannou should have gotten his hand raised in Kingdom Arena last Saturday, including boxers, mixed martial arts fighters, and one judge ringside that night.  Other than the official judge, Atlas believes there’s a phenomenon in human beings that kind of ‘fills the gaps’ of what actually occurred and that we can distort reality a bit.   

“There’s a phenomenon going on here, and I’ll tell you what the phenomenon (is), and I’ll put my hand on a bible in a courthouse and swear that I’m right about this,” said Atlas.  “There’s going to be people that you’re not going to be able to convince because they’ve made up their minds.  They don’t know what they don’t know.  They made up their minds.  I get it.  They saw what they saw.  They want to believe it.  You ain’t going to change them, but give yourself a chance to listen to this.  

“Here’s the phenomenon.  When the unexpected happens at a large level like this was, where nobody gave this guy a chance, it is human nature to – when a guy is more competitive than anyone that he’d be, and he was, it’s human nature to think that person won.  Bang!  It’s human nature to kind of fill in the gaps.  To fill in the gaps where what you didn’t see you think you saw.  Yeah.  What you didn’t see you think you saw because he dropped him.  He was competitive.  He wasn’t sloppy.  He had a good jab.  He had good technique.  He was calm.  He was patient.  He was in control.  He was confident, so you fill in all the gaps to what wasn’t happening.  ‘He won.’  ‘He did all these things’ because of the unexpected, because just that part of it fills in all the gaps there wasn’t really filled by punches, but they were built by your imagination.  It was filled by the rest of you taking it the rest of the way where you say, ‘He went the distance.  He was supposed to get knocked out.  He dropped him.  He used a beautiful jab.  He wasn’t sloppy.  He won!’  Not so fast friends.  Listen, I never have a dog in the fight… I’m telling you from my experience.”

To score the fight, Atlas watched it alone when he returned home from the Saudi Arabia away from the lights and away from the chaotic nature of a live event.    

“When that fight ended, I didn’t know who won,” Atlas said.  “Yeah, I said it.  I didn’t know if it was a draw.  It was close.  I didn’t know.  At ringside, I didn’t know who won,” Atlas continued.  “When I got home after 24 hours of traveling…I had to watch the fight in a vacuum.”  

Atlas scored Fury winning eight rounds.  Rounds 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 10.  He scored Ngannou only winning two frames, Rounds 3 and 8, and he scored the third round 10-8 for a total scoring of 97-93.