Tyson Fury was beaten by Oleksandr Usyk to become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world via split decision. Fury's future in professional boxing has been plunged into doubt following his first career defeat
Tuesday 21 May 2024 07:34, UK
Tyson Fury will be "broken-hearted" after defeat to Oleksandr Usyk in their undisputed world title fight, but a "better version" of the British star can win the rematch, says Sky Sports expert George Groves...
It's very difficult to put into context exactly what Usyk has achieved because it is something incredible. It's the first heavyweight champion to hold all four heavyweight belts in this era, the last person to do it was Lennox Lewis, that was 25 years ago and that was just three belts.
Throughout the decades, you're going to have the No 1 in the division but for someone to go in there and essentially just clean up like he has done, has been incredible.
He took on Fury, the giant, someone who's been maybe the best heavyweight of his era so far, 6ft 9in-plus plus, and beat him the way he did.
I gave the result to Usyk. I had it a little wider than some of the judge's cards. In the first three or four rounds some had it to Fury, some had it to Usyk - depends what you're into or what you're after. From the end of that fourth round, definitely, in the fifth round, Fury then started to take over, he started to implement his style really well. He looked like he was firing on all cylinders. Fury had the timing of Usyk. The body shots were working really well. He had a variety of show-low-and-shoot-high-up-through-the-guard shots and he landed a few uppercuts and you're thinking at that point, wow, Fury's into his own, he's going to win this fight. But that didn't happen.
Showboating is part and parcel of Fury, but Usyk is vastly experienced, he doesn't really engage in any of that. He doesn't try and get a reaction, because that's what Fury wants you to do. He puts his hands behind his back. He wants you to jump in so that you make a mistake. He forces that mistake from you and he makes you pay. So I think it's unfair for people to say Fury's showboating cost him the fight. I don't think so.
Usyk was just a really good fighter. They both were on their A-game really so they both brought their best. There's a nose injury that comes for Fury, which looked like it could have been bothering him. If your nose is broken or busted it starts filling up with blood, which makes it a little bit harder to breathe. Usyk was applying that pressure from the get-go. He was trying to make Fury fight at an uncomfortable pace. So once he started landing, he started putting a little bit more on his shots, land them a little bit heavier in that second half of the fight, you know from rounds, eight, nine onwards, and then it's heavyweight boxing. It doesn't matter if the guy's five inches shorter and two-plus stone lighter, you're still going to have a significant force that is going to hurt it. It's going to buzz you to your feet and that's what Usyk did.
Everyone was up on their chairs at that point standing up because Fury was completely gone. He gets caught with a choppy sort of long left and then he just does not let Tyson Fury off the hook. Usyk is jumping into these shots at this point because he's given away so much height and reach and Fury to his credit, stays on his feet.
But at the final barrage, you're thinking that the referee's going to jump in and stop the fight. He jumps in and you're thinking Oleksandr has done it, but he doesn't. He awards him with a standing eight count because essentially the rule is, if you were to go down, and the ropes have kept you up, the referee at his discretion can step in and administer a standing eight count but it's very, very rare.
Fury has shown vulnerability in that respect, but he's always had a phenomenal power of recovery to get up off the floor, beat the count and ultimately go on to win. But I don't think I've ever seen him as hurt as he was in that round there. And the ropes definitely kept him up and the referee, in some ways, did him a favour to keep him in the fight.
Usyk obviously went on and won, but we got a few more rounds out of drama so you know, as a paying punter, as a boxing fan, we are probably happy that the fight was left to carry on. If I was in the Usyk team I would have been a bit disappointed thinking 'just let my man get in there, land a couple more shots and close the show'.
I think Fury will certainly want to avenge that loss. He's a proud man. He's a proud fighter. He only has one loss on his record now, and it's Usyk, and he's got the opportunity to try and put that right and there were periods of rounds in that fight on Saturday night where he was in control and he was doing well. So he might want to go back to the drawing board and try and rebuild. But also Usyk is that sort of fighter who does improve fight upon fight, he gets better, and he will learn a lot.
Fury would have learned a lot from that fight and he might be an even better version for the rematch. So it might be a totally different fight if they get it again. Fury versus Anthony Joshua is an exciting fight for Brits and worldwide everyone's been screaming about that fight for almost a decade now. That might be an option. He might decide 'I won't chase the belts, I'll go after Joshua'. Usyk might retire and then it's an opportunity for Fury to become world champion again, as I say maybe against Joshua or someone else, but if anything he wants to go back home and take some time.
Don't make any knee-jerk reactions and decisions about this. It's a long time since he's lost, He'd only ever lost as an amateur, so he'll be broken-hearted for sure. But if he looks to fight on I think he showed that he wasn't a spent force. He's still firing on a lot of those cylinders. He's boxing well, so there's still fight in Tyson Fury left if he wants it. So it's up to him.
