Tyson Fury still favourite to beat Oleksandr Usyk despite performance against Francis Ngannou, says Carl Frampton

02/11/2023 18:50

Carl Frampton believes we will not see the same Tyson Fury against Oleksandr Usyk as we did vs Francis Ngannou.

‘The Gypsy King’ did not look his usual self in his clash late last month against Ngannou, as he was dropped on the way to a controversial split decision victory, although many people thought the Cameroonian deserved to win.

Fury may not have looked his best against Ngannou

Next up, Fury is contractually obliged to take on Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight world titles, having already signed to fight.

They were originally expected to clash on December 23, but now it looks likely to take place in February, to give Fury time to recover from his contest with Ngannou.

And while Fury’s stock might have dropped, former two-weight world champion Frampton still thinks he has the edge over Usyk.

“I still have Fury as a favourite against Usyk,” Frampton told BBC Sport.

“He obviously needs to be much better than he was in his last fight, which he will be.”

Frampton continued: “He [Fury] didn’t let the boxing community down, but he’s probably upset and annoyed at himself because it was a poor performance.

“It seems he’s doing too much. Both guys were at the gala dinner [in Saudi Arabia] the night before the event, what’s that about?

“I wouldn’t have been doing that if I was fighting. I would have been resting, but we all know Fury is much better than what we saw, and everyone is entitled to a bad performance once in a while.”

As for Ngannou, Frampton was very impressed, as he said: “I couldn’t believe what I was watching at times. I expected Francis to look really wild and amateurish, novicey and be swinging from his feet, and he wasn’t.

“He had a nice stylish stance, he looked like he had been boxing for a long time. He was very tough and powerful. Fury couldn’t work him out.

“It was a harder night than anyone anticipated. This isn’t me being the boxer slamming the MMA guys. Who in their rational mind would have thought Francis would’ve pushed Fury like that?”