Two Months On: Usyk’s Dominance Over Fury Still Resonates

It’s been two months since Oleksandr Usyk defeated Tyson Fury with an impressive twelve-split-decision victory to capture the undisputed heavyweight championship on May 18th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Many fans still feel that Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) should have won a ninth-round knockout if not for the referee giving Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) a standing eight count when he was out on his feet, absorbing a barrage of 20 consecutive headshots.

The Fury-Usyk rematch is five months away on December 21st, which will give Fury a lot of time to try and fix the flaws that led to him getting dominated by Usyk in that defeat, but it might not matter. Usyk was superior to him in every department in that fight, and all the mauling tricks were useless.

Fury needs to lose weight and focus on staying off the ropes because that was the main problem that led to his defeat. Fury, 35, was carrying too many groceries around his midsection, and the extra training camps he had to trim off the weight wasn’t nearly enough to finish the job to get the last 40 lbs off.

Tyson looked about three stones too heavy for the fight, and Usyk took advantage of that with his speed, mobility, and work rate.

Fury will be turning 36 next month on August 12th, and that’s not a young pup to be heading into one of the most important fights of his career against Usyk. For the PPV buys, it’s essential for Fury’s pocketbook that he wins the rematch.

His Excellency letting Fury know that he’s still going to be getting the Anthony Joshua fight next year, even if he loses to Usyk, removes the incentive to put in the hard work to win the rematch on December 21st.

When Fury is still getting the golden payday against Joshua, no matter how badly things end up for him, he might not be motivated to train hard, stay away from the kitchen and the goodies to get in decent shape to have a go of it.

Two months since Usyk 𝐃𝐑𝐎𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐃 Fury on his way to glory 😱

Who wins the rematch? 👑#UsykFury2 | #RiyadhSeason | @Turki_alalshikh | @usykaa pic.twitter.com/1nW7jeRDQU

— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) July 18, 2024