Tyson Fury (34-2-1, 24 KOs) was in denial at the post-fight press conference on Saturday, denying that he had lost the fight to WBA, WBC, and WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk and saying he should have won by three or four rounds in their rematch on Turki Alashikh’s card in Riyadh. The judges scored it 116-112, 116-112 and 116-112.
The former WBC champion Fury said that he deserved to win both fights with Usyk (23-0, 12 KOs) and would continue to believe this until the day he died. The punch stats for Saturday’s rematch suggest otherwise. They show that Usyk landed more punches with a higher degree of accuracy.
Punch Stats for Usyk-Fury 2
– Usyk: 179 of 423 punches for 42%
– Fury: 144 of 509 punches for 28%
Fury’s Denial
“He never hurt me once. Not a mark on me, ” said Tyson Fury at the post-fight press conference, saying Oleksandr Usyk didn’t hurt him on Saturday night in their rematch. “I took it more serious. I was on that front foot more.”
“There was no showboating or nothing. He was focused all the way through. He boxed well, and his jab was superb, and his footwork was superb. He wasn’t slow, and was very evasive,’ said Fury’s promoter, Frank Warren.
“How many times did he get caught? I don’t think he was caught by any decent punches and a couple of left hands. That was it.”
The fight was not close. Usyk dominated the action with his aggressiveness, accuracy, and hidden defense. Fury looked like he came into the fight carrying too much weight, bulking up to 281 lbs or whatever it was.
He looked fat around the middle and was too heavy for the kind of fight that he needed to beat Usyk. Fury made a mistake, believing he could win this fight by bulking up rather than trimming down to the 250s. That would have been a better weight for Fury tonight.
“A Christmas gift. It’s not Oleksandr’s fault. Congratulations to him and his team,” said Fury about his belief that the judges gave Usyk a gift.
