Lennox Lewis, the last man to become the undisputed champion in the heavyweight division, believes Tyson Fury did enough to edge out a decision win over MMA veteran Francis Ngannou.

In a ten round non-title crossover fight, Fury struggled in winning a razor-close split decision.

The scores were 95-94, 96-93 for Fury and 95-94 for Ngannou.

In the third round, Ngannou landed a counter left that dropped Fury to the mat. He would later cut Fury's forehead with an uppercut and then pounded on Fury during the eight round. The fight was close with several swing rounds.

Many observers had expected Ngannou, a former UFC champion who was making his pro boxing debut, to get knocked out in a one-sided fight.

Lewis felt Fury made the mistake of treating the bout like a tune-up to an already announced undisputed fight with WBO, IBF, IBO, WBA champion Oleksandr Usyk, who was seated at ringside.

"I thought Tyson Fury won," Lewis told TNT Sports. "He was throwing a lot of punches. He was getting that jab going, Francis Ngannou really surprised me - he showed really good poise, patience. 

"You could tell that he was waiting for that perfect opportunity and he threw a punch when Tyson Fury was off balance. The fundamentals weren’t there from him, he wasn’t 100 percent. This was like a warmup fight to the big fight for me."

Lewis would also take to social media to express more of his thoughts on the fight.

"The lion can't let the shark come into the jungle and nearly beat him. Ngannou's stock is up. Fury's stock is down in a lackluster win," Lewis said.

The fight with Usyk is slated to take place on December 23, also in Saudi Arabia, but now the date is up in the air after Fury suffered a cut and took more punishment than anyone had expected.