On the night of December 22, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a rematch took place between the WBA, WBO, WBC, IBO and The Ring heavyweight champion from Ukraine Oleksandr Usyk and the former unified world champion from Britain Tyson Fury. The champion won for the second time – this time even more confidently.
The mistakes were corrected, the teamwork was done. It was very good.
In the first fight, Tyson Fury, who was ten kilograms lighter, only warmed up until the middle of the meeting. He began to force Usyk to go under the striking arm, attacked the torso and hit it with the same uppercut. And then by the middle of the confrontation, everything was essentially decided.
Usyk worked on the torso opposite. He hit there in the clinch, from a distance, with any of the available blows. Usyk did not break at close range. And he was terribly accurate.
Before the fight, many famous boxing officials and boxers were asked who was better in which component of the Usyk-Fury pair. And, speaking of the jab, the absolute majority chose Tyson. It was surprising at the time, and now they should all watch the rematch.
The Ukrainian’s forehand work is wonderful. Accurate, timely. Hitting the torso, stopping, timing. Perfect.
Correct movement on the feet. Oleksandr’s coach regularly reminded the boxer which way to go – to the right of him. This made it possible not to run into Tyson’s striking hand and create a more comfortable angle for himself for attack or defense. And when Usyk went in the opposite direction, he did it with an attack to squeeze Fury in the pincers of thoughts about his next actions.
The further the fight went, the more obvious it became that the only one who could win early today was Usyk. In the last third of the fight, Fury focused on aggression. He was charging, hitting the torso, the stomach. He was combining at medium distance. He was hitting the body with his sides a lot. And he was also aiming with an uppercut from a distance.
And if the first part worked quite well, then the second did not give any results at all. Tyson became heavier, slower and unexpectedly it was not possible to catch Usyk.
There could be no doubts about the winner. Usyk leveled the difficult start until the middle of the fight. Then he simply dismantled Fury in class. At a distance, in the clinch – it doesn’t matter. This was a good Tyson – as much as he can be at this age and with this weight. But not good enough to win.
The first fight ended in a split decision. The second: 116-112 three times in favor of the Ukrainian.