World Boxing News looks at the career of Tyson Fury following his stunning trip to the canvas at the hand of Francis Ngannou.
The WBC heavyweight champion gained plenty of plaudits as one of the best ever until a UFC star put him down and potentially should have gotten the decision.
Those two incidents add to twelve more where Fury was either on the floor, deducted points for fouling, or the consensus was that he lost the fight.
Tyson Fury’s ‘first defeat’
John McDermott can be credited with the first in 2009. ‘Big John’ gave Fury kittens in a ten-round rounder for the English title.
British fans watched in disbelief as Fury gained the decision by eight rounds to two, which certainly wasn’t how the contest panned out. McDermott was very unlucky not to get the nod.
Fury was so irked by his performance that he flew to Detroit to link up with Emmanuel Steward at the Kronk Gym. His links with Sugarhill Steward were formed there with cousin Andy Lee.
Nine months later, Fury battered McDermott and stopped him after three knockdowns. The first of Fury’s many point deductions happened in the fight, though, in the seventh.
“The Gypsy King” was accused of clinching too much by referee Dave Parris.
Fury dropped for the first time
Neven Pajkic is credited with inflicting the first touchdown on Fury. A right to the head in the second round did the damage. Fury was unfazed and stopped Pajkic in the following session.
In 2012, Kevin Johnson was on the wrong end of Fury hitting on the break. The incident results in another point being taken off for fouling.
Just four months later, Steve Cunningham unleashed a haymaker on Fury to put him down again. In the same fight, Fury lost a point for a headbutt.
Fury managed to stay out of any further trouble until his world heavyweight title challenge against Wladimir Klitschko in 2015.
Against the Ukrainian, Fury was deducted a point in the eleventh round, which, on the face of it, could have been catastrophic.
Punching behind the head, ruled by Tony Weeks, squeezed the scores closer. Fury still won the fight and the unified championship unanimously.
It’s well-documented that Fury spent over three years on the path to oblivion before returning for two easy bouts. He then took on Deontay Wilder – to his credit.
However, Wilder had him down twice in the fight and scrambling to regain his senses. The resulting draw led to another two blockbuster fights.
Otto Wallin gave Fury 47 stitches during the interim period before Fury faced Wilder again in February 2020. Fury was again deducted a point for pushing Wilder down and leaning on.
In the third meeting with Wilder, Fury was down two more times before Ngannou took that tally of incidents to fourteen.
Phil Jay is an experienced boxing news writer.
Editor of World Boxing News since 2010.
