Former boxing heavyweight champion, Mike Tyson, has hailed Francis Ngannou as the true champion of a non-title heavyweight bout against Tyson ‘Gipsy King’ Fury that took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday.

Tyson, who trained Ngannou ahead of the bout, took to his official X account to express delight in his trainee’s performance on Saturday night.

“The true champ of the evening @francis_ngannou,” said Tyson. “So proud of how you performed.”

Ngannou, 37, a mixed martial artist making a professional boxing debut, came into the game as an underdog compared to Fury, 35, who has remained unbeaten since he turned professional in 2008, winning 33 fights and drawing just one. Twenty-four of Fury’s victories were via knockout.

Against predictions giving Fury an express and seamless victory, Ngannou dropped Fury to the canvas with a fierce left hook in the third round, stunning the audience.

But Fury bounced back into the fight, out-punching Ngannou to victory in a 10-round bout.

Fury won on a split decision as one judge scored it 95-94 for Ngannou, while the other two officials scored it 96-93 and 95-94 for Fury.

Speaking after the fight, Fury rated Ngannou as a strong fighter, describing the fight as one of the toughest in the last decade.

“He’s given me probably one of my toughest fights in the last 10 years. Francis is a hell of a fighter, strong, a big puncher, and a lot better boxer than we all thought he would be,” Fury said.

After the fight, Ngannou said, “It didn’t go my way. I might have come up short today. I’ll come back.”

Saturday’s fight comes some weeks before the undisputed championship fight scheduled to be held on December 23 between Fury and Oleksandr Usyk.