By Charles Brun: Oleksandr Usyk’s promoter Alex Krassyuk says Tyson Fury was arrogant and overconfident about his fight with ex-UFC champion Francis Ngannou last Saturday night, and he paid the price with his near defeat in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Krassyuk says that Fury’s entire mystique was built on his wins over Wladimir Klitschko & Deontay Wilder, both of which stood directly in front of him to allow him to enjoy success. Alex says Wladimir had a bad night due to circumstances in his life and would have beaten him ten out of ten times.
Krassyuk states that it doesn’t matter when WBC heavyweight champion Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) faces IBF/WBA/WBO champ Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs), be it December 23rd or February, he’s going to lose that fight.
Given how old & inept Fury looked against Ngannou, one would have to agree with Krassyuk. Fury looked not just old, fat, and shot, but more of a hype job that was exposed when fought someone he couldn’t maul with his 270+ lb frame.
Fury’s popularity, such as it was, took a huge hit with his narrow ten round split decision win over the debutante Ngannou (0-1) last Saturday night, and it doesn’t matter that the two judges gave him the win; Tyson was exposed as an actor, who was created by his management, thanks to their strategic match-making.
Of course, you can’t leave out how Fury was saved from two knockout losses to Deontay with the help of a count that should have never been given in the first fight and the slow count in the third when Tyson was down on the canvas, badly hurt.
There’s also the controversial win for Fury in his first fight with John McDermott in September 2009, in which he appeared to lose, but he was given a controversial win. The crowd booed Fury heavily immediately after the results were announced, letting him know they saw him as the loser.
Fury was smug
“Tyson did not treat him well. He was a little bit arrogant towards Ngannou. He did not consider him anything serious,” said Alex Krassyuk to Boxing King Media about how Tyson Fury overlooked Francis Ngannou.
“He was looking past him already. He signed the deal with Usyk, and it was announced already. So, he was overlooking his upcoming opponent. Normally, we know him [Fury] from his fights with Wilder and Klitschko. It was three major fights. Wilder, who was not moving with only one punch [right hand in his arsenal].”
It was obvious to the world that Fury assumed that the win was in the bag before he fought Ngannou, just knowing he wouldn’t lose the fight, and sure enough, he didn’t.
Some boxing fans believe that with the massive mega-fight that Fury had already signed for to face Usyk, there was literally no way he would be given the loss, apart from a knockout.
“This man, Ngannou, showed that by being disciplined and goal-oriented with limited assets in techniques that he delivered at his best that we saw,” said Krassyuk.
Ngannou did a couple of things well that took away Fury’s game completely. That was to out-wrestle him when he attempted his old mauling tricks and counter him with left hands when he threw a right.
With those two things working against Fury, the only thing he could do was throw limp jabs, which had nothing on them and were no way comparable to the huge shots that Ngannou was bouncing off his chin.
Ngannou landed the cleaner, harder shots in every round of the fight, but the two judges that gave it to Fury appeared to give more value to his jabs over the monstrous power shots that Francis was hitting him with.
Tyson doomed
“I was a little surprised with how Tyson performed, and I was a little surprised with how Ngannou performed. Tyson was ahead on my scorecards,” said Krassyuk. “No, Tyson did not perform good.
“Ngannou was a 100% underdog, who had never fought in boxing, and who fought the reigning heavyweight champion [Fury]. He claims himself to be the reigning lineal champion, and this man [Ngannou] teaches him a lesson. What a dramatic story. It was a Hollywood script.”
It would have been a Hollywood script if Ngannou was given the victory last Saturday night, but instead, he lost, and it fit in with this era’s many controversial results.
Ideally, there should be an immediate rematch because the fans are upset, and Fury’s popularity is in the dumps. If he had any sense, he would attempt to postpone the Usyk fight and face Ngannou again, but that’s not going to happen, though.
“Everyone knows Fury from his fight with Klitschko. Klitschko had an unfortunate night with him,” said Krassyuk. “He [Wladimir] would win ten out of ten fights with him, but that night was a coincidence of factors that led him to the loss. That’s probably something that Tyson had that night.
“Frank Warren doesn’t want Tyson to fight because he knows what the outcome is going to be. What’s the difference when Tyson loses? Whether he loses on the 23rd the 13th of February, or the 22nd of March, it doesn’t matter. The sooner, the better.”
Fury’s promoters clearly didn’t want to stick with the December 23rd date, and who can’t blame him? Fury looked like he’d been jumped by a gang and had the stuffing beaten out of him.
After the beating Ngannou gave to Fury, it would been insane to go through with the December 23rd fight because Tyson would be facing the guillotine. Old Fury doesn’t have it anymore, as age and soft living have caught up to him.
Fury is living in paradise right now with his millions, and he’s putting on weight in between fights against ham & eggers. As such, there’s no way that he would be ready to face a talent like Usyk in December.
“Tyson, take a rest, recover and fill your body & soul with energy, and come back to training camp. The world is waiting for you and Usyk in Saudi in Riyadh for the biggest fight of the century. Listen, we cannot miss it. We cannot make the world wait anymore. It’s our obligation to make it happen,” said Krassyuk.
