Plenty of people have wondered for some time, how Tyson Fury would react if he ever did lose a fight? Well, that moment, that sting, came last night, with the superb Oleksandr Usyk handing the self-proclaimed “greatest fighter who ever lived” his first pro defeat. And it was a genuine, no controversy, no debate defeat that Fury suffered.
It could in fact have been a stoppage loss for Fury, what with him taking the worst shellacking of his entire career in the ninth round.
The third man could so easily have stepped in, but he didn’t. As it is, Fury now has to go back, rest up, and come back. But can he do it? People are now wondering if Fury, a man who we know has suffered from mental health problems, might simply be unable to ever be the same again now that he has been beaten. So bombastic, so self-assured, so arrogant, so sure he would never lose to another man. This was Fury, but now….who knows how he will deal with what he deep down inside knows was a definite loss.
Maybe Fury will show us even more character than he already has shown us in the ring, and maybe he will bounce back. The rematch is contracted and could happen in October, but we will have to wait and see. Fury will go home and he will sit and talk with his family. The real going over Fury took in that ninth round – this, do not forget, from a “middleweight,” a “rabbit,” a man Fury said he would knock spark out – may well serve to haunt Fury bad.
Will it be even worse for Fury in a rematch with Usyk? How much will Saturday’s tough, at times quite punishing fight have taken away from 35 year old Fury?
How much longer can he continue taking shots, being hurt, and coming back? Fury, who was busted up at the end of his 12 hellish rounds with Usyk, took some real hurt in two of his three battles with Deontay Wilder, he took some shots and some pain in his unexpectedly tough fight with Francis Ngannou, and now Fury is nursing the bruises he took in the Usyk fight. But it could be the bruise to his ego that affects Fury the most here.
No great fighter knows how they will react if they are beaten. Fury especially felt he would never be bettered by another man. Having now lost, and to a naturally smaller man, Fury’s mental strength could be tested more severely than at any other time in his life.
We wish Fury all the best. For whatever you say about Fury or whatever you think of him, it cannot be denied that he gave us some truly thrilling fights during his career. Is there more to come, or is there not? Even Tyson Fury himself doesn’t know at this point in time. How could he?
