We shouldn’t really be surprised that Tyson Fury is having trouble facing reality and accepting that Oleksandr Usyk defeated him in their massive May 18 unification showdown.
As fans know, Usyk boxed brilliantly, the southpaw from Ukraine punishing Fury in the ninth round, with Usyk also busting Fury’s nose and sweeping the final five rounds in the opinion of most. Usyk also bagged the opening two sessions.
Fury did have his moments and his rounds, but you will not find too many people who agree with the former WBC heavyweight champion, who says he deserved to win the fight by a whopping 116-111 margin.
Talking on his Furocity YouTube channel, 35-year-old Fury posted his own scorecard. Fury says he has rewatched the fight multiple times and always scores the fight for himself. The three official judges had it as follows: 115-112 and 114-113 for Usyk, with the other having 114-113 for Fury.
Fury says he feels very strongly that he “boxed the head right off him for most of the rounds,” the former champ also comes out with the statement, “Usyk knows he didn’t beat me.” Upon rewatching the fight, Fury awarded himself rounds 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, and 12. Fury’s score-card gives Usyk just the 8th, the 9th, and the 10th rounds, with Usyk getting a 10-8 score in the ninth when the 37-year-old administered a real beat-down over the last minute or so of the round.
Fury really does seem to be in denial with his interpretation of the Usyk fight. The fact that Fury can award himself a 116-111 win shows how incapable he is of accepting defeat. And as for Usyk “knowing” he didn’t beat Fury, we’ll just have to take Fury’s word on that one, won’t we?
Some fans did see the May 18 fight as close, while others felt Usyk won wide, at nine rounds to three, with the extra point in the ninth (that ninth round, by the way, could so easily have been scored 10-7 in favor of Usyk, the ropes keeping Fury up more than once).
We now look ahead to the rematch, with a little under six months to go until the sequel. Many people feel Usyk will improve his performance and perhaps even stop Fury this time. Other fans believe Fury can and will make the necessary adjustments and get revenge on December 21. If Fury is beaten a second time, will the self-proclaimed ‘greatest fighter ever’ finally accept that Usyk is simply a better boxer/fighting man than he is?
Don’t bet on it.