Oleksandr Usyk retained his heavyweight title Saturday with a unanimous decision victory over Tyson Fury in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Usyk scored a 116-112 win on all three judges scorecards, proving that his earlier victory over a then undefeated Fury was no fluke. Across 37 professional bouts, the only two blemishes on the towering heavyweight’s record have both come at the hands of Usyk in 2024.
The pairs earlier contest in May ended in a split decision victory for the Ukrainian, leading to “The Gypsy King” exercising his rematch clause for December. Despite suffering back to back losses to Usyk, Fury downplayed his opponent’s skills after the contest.
“I was quite confident, I fought I won that fight again,” Fury told reporters afterwards. “I thought I’d won the both fights but then again, I’ve gone home with two losses on my record now so there’s not much I can do about it … I will always believe until the day I die, I’ve won that fight.”
The former champion went on to say that he never felt like he was in danger in the ring, and that Usyk failed to “hurt” him at any point. In the end, he would refer to his opponent’s win as a “Christmas gift” from the judges.
For his part, Usyk was gracious in victory telling reporters “Listen, I really respect this guy because I think he is a very tough opponent. Tyson Fury makes me strong. Tyson is a great opponent. He is a big man, a tough boxer. He is a good man. With Tyson there is a lot of talking but I have so much respect for him. Twenty-four rounds? Listen, now it is already historic.”
Despite his claims otherwise, Fury lost in virtually every measurable category according to CompuBox’s post fight statistics. Usyk landed more total punches, jabs, and power shots when all was said and done.
While the Englishman was able to gain some momentum by winning rounds 4, and 5 on the scorecards, it was a short lived burst as Usyk relentlessly backed his much larger opponent down for the remainder of the fight. The champion scored unanimous wins on the judges cards in rounds 6, 7, 8, 10, and 11 despite giving up nearly 55 pounds to Fury.
What comes next for either fighter is anyone’s guess. While Fury’s name still brings box office dollars, aside from Usyk, he’s largely cleaned out the heavyweight division at this point of his career. Meanwhile, Usyk could go in any number of directions for his next bout, though few would bring the kind of international attention that his bouts against the Fury did.
Daniel Dubois, Joseph Parker, Zhilei Zhang, Agit Kabayel, and Martin Bakole are all names who will claim they deserve the next title shot. But how that pecking order ultimately plays out remains to be seen.
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