Sour grapes: Fury refuses to accept defeat against Usyk

Tyson Fury sounded like a bad sport after his loss to unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday night. He said the referees had given the Ukrainian an “early Christmas present” rather than admit he had lost to the better man in their rematch in Riyadh.

The statistics tell the story

Usyk (23-0, 12 KOs) outboxed and schooled Fury (34-2, 24 KOs) on Saturday night at the Kingdom Arena. Oleksandr was aggressive, landing more punches, hurting Fury several times, and was awarded a 12-round unanimous decision.

The scores were 116-112, 116-112 and 116-112. Fury says his promoter Frank Warren pushed him to win by three or four rounds, which means zero.

Usyk vs Fury 2 punch stats

– Tyson Fury: 144 of 509 punches for 28%
– Oleksandr Usyk: 179 out of 423 for 42%

“Yeah, I was pretty confident. I thought I won that fight. I thought I won both fights, but now I have two losses on my record,” said Tyson Fury on press conference after the fighthe sounds like a person in denial about his loss to Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday night in Riyadh.

“I repeat, I will always believe until the day I die that I won that fight. I was on the front foot all night, going down with my body and head. (My promoter) Frank (Warren) gave me three or four rounds. Most people have had at least two. Always be a little pushy about it. Not a little. Actually, a lot.

“When you don’t get knocked out. Here’s what’s happening. You can’t guarantee victory,” Fury said.

The worst kind of fighter you can have is one who won’t admit when they’re wrong and when they haven’t done their job right. When you tell them they’re not up to par, they deny it and think you’re the problem.

Fury is an example of such a person. Put him on the battlefield in a war situation where he has to follow orders and he’s completely unreliable and you can’t trust him to do what he’s told. Put him in the position of leading a platoon and he would be unreliable because he can’t admit his mistakes. Fury cannot face the truth about himself.

“I don’t know if you’ve seen the scorecards. One judge gave Usyka the last seven rounds. The other two judges in the last seven rounds each gave him a round,” promoter Frank Warren said of the judges. “How on earth can you say he’s won one round out of the last seven?”

“Christmas gift”

“I think he got a little Christmas present from those judges,” Fury said of Usyk. “There is no doubt that I won the fight.”

“Bob Arum went 8-4 on Tyson,” said Fury’s manager Spencer Brown, referring to Tyson’s co-promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank.