Tyson Fury took an enormous beating in his loss to unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk in their first fight, and there are questions about whether he’s got much left going into the second one in 12 days on December 21st.
The Beating
That beatdown Fury took in the ninth round was the type that will have lasting effects, and he may not be able to hang in the rematch once Usyk starts putting it on him again.
Fury is already talking about wanting a trilogy with Usyk, which wouldn’t make sense if he loses again. It would be up to His Excellency Turki Alalshikh if he wants to keep giving Fury retries, but it would be better to let someone else get a turn against the talented Usyk.
The 36-year-old Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) has been through hell since his 12-round split decision to Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) on May 18th. I don’t know what happened to Fury, but he looks like he’s been living a very, very hard life in the seven months. It would be interesting to be a fly on the wall to glimpse what he’s been engulfing into his food vacuole.
That loss seems to have aged Fury a good ten years, making him look like a burned 45+-year-old. He doesn’t look in the greatest shape going into the rematch. It seems Fury slacked off with the diet regimen after his defeat, which is understandable.
When people are unhappy, they tend to eat goodies, and that may be one reason why the Gypsy King put on so much weight that he hasn’t been able to take off.
Fury’s Loss of Concentration?
“If you lose focus, if you lose concentration against Oleksandr Usyk, it’s a disaster,” said Eddie Hearn to DAZN, trying to explain away why Tyson Fury lost to Oleksandr Usyk last May. “It’s the power of recovery for Fury from there that was incredible to come back into the fight.”
A loss of concentration isn’t the reason why Fury was beaten by Usyk last May. It had nothing to do with all the voices in Fury’s corner during the fight, barking instructions at him. He just couldn’t handle the skills of Usyk, and tagged on the chin, his legs turned to jelly.
You can blame that on his deteriorating punch resistance from a long professional career and his three fights with Deontay Wilder.
“Fury edged the first half of the fight, and Usyk dominated the back end of the fight,” said Hearn. “For me, the right man won. The intrigue is what can Tyson do differently in this fight.”
“Usyk beat up the man, which makes him the man,” said commentator Sergio Mora.
“Although he’d won the fight, he’d given everything. He was a tired man,” said promoter Frank Warren about Usyk. “It was a tough fight for both of them. What has it taken out of them? That is the thing now. Tyson, more than anybody, knows what he has to do. He doesn’t need me to tell him. He has a great boxing brain. He’s a student of boxing.”
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