Tyson Fury has come out to say “blame me” for what admitted was a “below par performance” from the WBC heavyweight champion of the world against MMA fighter, Francis Ngannou, who knocked the pro boxer down and who many feel deserved to win the match.
Fury faced former UFC fighter Ngannou, who had no previous orthodox boxing experience prior to the cross-discipline bout, on Sunday night and despite emerging victorious following a split decision, has sparked controversy across the fighting world, with many claiming the result was ‘rigged’.
Ngannou, 37, managed to deck ‘The Gypsy King’ in the third round and, in many viewers eyes, was the more dominant and aggressive of the two fighters on the night, but the judges still ruled 96-93 and 95-94 in Fury’s favour, with only the third judge scoring the Cameroonian-Frenchman ahead by 95-94.
While the fallout from the fight is still simmering — Mike Tyson, Carl Froch, Chris Eubank, Eddie Hearn, Ngannou himself and many more insisting that he should have won — a couple of days on from the fight, Fury has now come out to shed some light on how it went down, admitting he wasn’t at his best.
"BLAME ME IF YOU'RE GONNA BLAME ANYBODY"
Full interview with @Tyson_Fury now LIVE on our YouTube channel ‼️
Tyson Fury says ‘blame me’ for the knockdown and a sub-par performance in the ring.
Speaking to iFL TV ahead of flying home from the equally controversial fight venue in Saudi Arabia, the 35-year-old from Wythenshawe argued that although he believes there’s no one to blame for the fight not necessarily going according to plan, if blame has to be placed on anyone it should be him.
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“It wasn’t the best performance but I’m not going to make any excuses, said Fury. “I had a good camp… It was a tough fight, I had to get off the floor to win… yeah, it was a below-par performance but take nothing away from the other man. You’re only as good as your opponent will let you be and that’s a fact”.
Despite having compared the match-up against the former UFC champion to being “like a table tennis champion facing Djokovic in the Wimbledon final” (something Ngannou was quick to mock his opponent with shortly after), the MMA specialist gave him a tougher fight than many expected.
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Insisting that he “didn’t train for a fight like that”, Fury went on to add, “There’s no ‘who to blame’ — blame me. There’s no ‘blame the trainer’, ‘blame the manager’, ‘blame the cutman’; blame me if you’re gonna blame anybody. It was what it was — it’s the fight game, not tap dancing.
🔹The rules of boxing state that the count starts, only when the ref starts counting. 🔹Tyson Fury did beat the count. 🔹However it was poor officiating and the seven seconds taken to start the count, definitely helped Tyson Fury. 🔹The odds were stacked against Ngannou. https://t.co/I7mUOUmXRz
Detailing exactly why the ex-UFC fighter was difficult to deal with, the Manc boxing icon described Ngannou’s style as “a lot more awkward than [he] thought he was going to be”, refusing to “walk on” to more of the traditional shots you would expect from someone who hasn’t typically trained as a boxer.
He also explained the knockdown as a result of him “being greedy” and wanting to get in an extra hit after a one-two which simply resulted in his opponent catching him on the way out. While many fight fans will continue to argue the final decision was incorrect, the official CompuBox punch stats did seem to reveal that Fury landed more hits and that Ngannou simply landed a few extra power shots.
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Ultimately, Fury did concede that he “was good at what he was doing”, adding, “Fair play to him… he gave me a better fight than all the boxers did in the last 10 years”. Some pretty high praise.
Featured Image — iFL TV (via YouTube)/Francis Ngannou (via Twitter)
Sport
Manchester City reveal trailer for upcoming Together: 4-In-A-Row documentary
Danny Jones
Man City have revealed the first trailer for their new Together: 4-In-A-Row documentary, charting the course of their record-breaking four consecutive Premier League titles.
The follow-up to the Together: Treble Winners series, City‘s highly-anticipated documentary dropped earlier this year following their historic 2023/23 season, the movie will follow the same concept and relive the Manchester club’s latest unprecedented feat from 20/21 onwards.
While the previous TV outing was picked up by Netflix, the latest instalment is set to arrive at the end of this month exclusively on CITY+.
You can see the trailer for Together: 4-In-A-Row down below:
The new Man City documentary will feature exclusive interviews with manager extraordinaire, Pep Guardiola, Ballon d’Or winner and Champions League-winning goalscorer Rodri, club captain Kyle Walker and many more.
There will also be footage including soon-to-depart Director of Football, Txiki Begiristain, as well as the City Football Group’s Chief Executive Officer, Ferran Soriano.
Swapping the series format for a feature-length film this time, this is arguably CITY+‘s biggest release to date, with the content subscription service typically offering full match replays, youth academy coverage, as well as smaller documentaries and podcasts.
The streaming service (accessible via the website, Man City app and smart TVs) was only started back in 2024 but now four years later, rather fittingly, it’s set to document the most important years in the club’s history.
We’ve seen multiple Man City docs in recent years – their 2018 All Or Nothing Amazon Prime Video mini-series being the first – but the launch of the Together franchise back in April has helped put City Studios, on the map.
The in-house entertainment arm, first set up in 2022, has even more ambitious plans for the coming years, with a huge deal to create multiple big-budget productions in collaboration with Sony.
Fans are getting even more behind-the-scenes content soon.
Gavin Johnson, Media Director at CFG, said of the trailer reveal: “We’re delighted to announce the release of our latest offering in the ‘Together’ collection.
“Produced once again by our award-winning in-house production and creative hub, City Studios, the documentary film offers our fans a true insight into the team and how they achieved the historic four-in-a-row success.”
Set to be released at 6pm UK time on 20 November, Together: 4-In-A-Row will only be able to watch via the CITY+ platform.
So, if you’re a Blue who wants to relive the last four years of non-stop silverware, you can enjoy a 30-day free trial, after which CITY+ is just £4.99 a month. An annual subscription can be purchased for £34.99 a year or for £30 with an Official Cityzens membership/season ticket.
Man United legend Eric Cantona stuns Manchester artists with surprise visit to GRIT Studios
Danny Jones
Artists working at a Manchester studio were left speechless by a recent surprise visit from none other than Man United legend Eric Cantona.
The former United forward’s love for the city has never waned no matter how many years have gone by and as a lover of all things art, be it music, painting, acting or what he did with a football, he never fails to engage with local culture whenever he’s here.
He may not be based here anymore but the Frenchman – who knows a thing or two about art given his past acting jobs, newfound music career and previous showcases – still pays plenty of visits to 0161, including a recent unannounced one.
Cantona was back in the city centre this week to pay GRIT Studios resident Michael Browne, the artist who he collaborated with to create his National Football Museum exhibition last year, but the one thing Browne didn’t do was let the other people working in their city centre location he was coming.
Credit: GRIT Studios Manchester (supplied)
To be fair, anyone would double-take if they saw Eric Cantona walk into a room, so this was quite a memorable occasion for the unsuspecting artists.
After working on 2023’s From Moss Side to Marseille with Browne, the 58-year-old has been reimmersing himself in the world of Manchester art and there aren’t many places that epitomise that more than GRIT, who are based in Stockport with a second studio at Great Northern Warehouse.
Landing in Manchester from Paris, Cantona arrived in the late morning and ended up staying for over an hour, taking time to meet a number of artists and tour the space with co-founder John Macaulay.
Clearly impressed with their work and genuinely enthused by the sense of community within the local grassroots art scene, it was a special visit for everyone involved.
John, a die-hard Man United fan who has seen the Red Devils play in 25 countries before going on to set up GRIT Studios and much-loved Art Battle MCR with his wife Sophie, said: “It’s full circle for me having watched Eric play all over the world, it’s true honour that he’s flown in to see our talented artists.”
Artists spent time chatting with Eric and talking through their creative processes; those present included mosaic artist, Francis Thorrington, plein air (outdoor) artist, Sketch MCR – a.k.a. Ben Rock – painters Jodie Silverman, Helen Davies and Sophie Macaulay, as well as woodworker Gus Riddell.
Also a fellow United fan, Francis said he simply “couldn’t stop smiling the whole time” after Cantona described his work as wonderful.
Eric looked at home when he picked up and started strumming Chris Pollin’s hand-made guitars, which are handcrafted from driftwood and take hundreds of hours of work.
The enigmatic sports personality turned pop philosopher and cultural figure clearly enjoyed the visit. His final message was that it was refreshing to see a place where “art was for everyone” not just the elite.
As for Browne, he is sworn to secrecy on his next project but let’s just say you can expect some big announcements in the coming weeks. As for GRIT, you can visit one of their open days this Saturday, 16 November and make sure to check out their Stockport studio if you’re in the area.
Danny Jones -
30th October 2023 
