Fury vs. Usyk 2 tonight! Prediction of a great fight

Tonight brings us the anticipated rematch between the 2 best heavyweights on the planet in a fight that is too close to call, but I will dissect and give my thoughts on how this could turn out….

Going back to the first fight 7 months ago, Fury may have had the fight won in his head after 5 or 6 rounds while cruising and the combination of Fury’s swagger and Usyk’s ability to adapt in the fight was Fury’s undoing on this occasion.

Ultimately, the key moment in that fight was the 9th round, in which Usyk dominated and resulted in a score of 10 – 8 in favor of Usyk. If it was 10-9 for Usyk in this round, the fight would have ended in a majority draw. It always comes down to fine margins at the pinnacle of any sport and I believe Fury can adjust and correct mistakes to get the job done tonight.

Make no mistake, Usyk is a generational great and is the only fighter who hasn’t been fazed by any of Fury’s mind games, resulting in a more focused and cooler version of Fury this time around. All games are over and this is a very different Tyson Fury.

There’s no doubt that Fury has an excellent boxing IQ, as does Usyk, however, as far as the rematch goes, I’m leaning heavily on Fury making the necessary adjustments to come back and improve more than Usyk. 2 notable rematches that saw great progress, the first being in 2009 against John McDermott where Fury won by a very narrow decision that many thought he could have lost.

In a rematch that was not immediate, but 3 fights and 9 months later, Fury won by convincing stoppage in the 9th round. The more notable rematch was the second bout with Wilder. In the first fight, a vulnerable Fury recovered from a 12th-round knockdown that resulted in a draw, and like the McDermott rematch, Fury would rematch Wilder 3 fights later. The second fight with Wilder ended with Fury obliterating him with a stoppage in the 7th round.

This rematch is different for a variety of reasons. Usyk is head and shoulders above McDermott and Wilder. This is an immediate rematch and both fighters are likely past their prime and nearing the end of their careers. Make no mistake though, as many of the great heavyweight wars, including The Thrilla in Manilla in 1975 between Ali and Frazier in their trilogy, both fighters were past their prime and on the brink of the end of their careers, this however did not affect becoming one of the biggest matches in the history of the heavyweight division and I think this one could also live up to expectations.

If Usyk were to win, then I think this could be the last time we see both fighters in the ring again because anything else could do. Fury would be coming off back to back losses, Usyk was the unified 2 weight division champion and had already beaten 2 top contenders including current IBF World Champion Daniel Dubois and former World Champion Anthony Joshua.

A Fury win would open up the division for either a trilogy with Usyk, a big fight with Anthony Joshua or another unification fight with the winner of Dubois vs. Parker, although if Parker wins that’s a different story because Parker and Fury are very close, but the point remains that a Fury win generate more money than the victory of Usyk and that is a fact.

Again, it is very difficult to call how this match can be won and a very interesting statistic comes to mind. Usyk has never been officially knocked down in his professional career to date, however, he was knocked out by unified light heavyweight world champion Artur Beterbiev with a brutal body shot in amateur competition in 2011. This knockdown was in the last round and another interesting statistic is that Fury won by knockout in every round except the 12th.

My prediction is a stoppage in the 12th round for Fury, because this stat just screams to me and I think Fury will want to leave it all in the ring this time.

I can see him going on points, but I want to make a bold prediction and put a few pounds on Fury to get knocked out in the 12th round.

What do readers predict…..?