Sour Grapes: Fury Refuses To Accept Defeat Against Usyk

Tyson Fury sounded like a poor sport after his loss to unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday night. He said the judges gave the Ukrainian an “early Christmas gift” rather than admitting that he’d lost to the better man in their rematch in Riyadh.

Stats 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, connected on more shots, hurt Fury several times, and was well deserving of the 12-round unanimous decision the judges gave him.

The scores were 116-112, 116-112, and 116-112. Fury says his promoter, Frank Warren, had him winning 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 of 423 for 42%

“Yeah, I was quite confident. I thought I won that fight. I thought I won both fights, but now I’ve got two losses on my record now,” said Tyson Fury at the post-fight press conference, sounding like a person in denial about his loss to Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday night in Riyadh.

“Again, I’ll always believe until the day I die, I won that fight. I was on the front foot all night, landing body and head. [my promoter] Frank [Warren] had me three or four rounds up. Most people had me at least two. Always be a little hard done by it. Not a little. Actually, a lot.

“When you don’t get the knockout. This is what happens. You can’t guarantee a win,” said Fury.

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

Fury is an example of that kind of person. Put him on the battlefield in a war situation where he has to follow orders, and he’s totally unreliable, and you couldn’t trust him to do what he’s told. Stick him in the point position to lead the platoon, and he’d be unreliable because he can’t admit his mistakes. Fury can’t confront the truth about himself. 

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

“A Christmas Gift”

“I think he got a little Christmas gift from those judges,” said Fury about Usyk. “There’s no doubt in my mind that I won the fight.”

“Bob Arum scored it 8-4 for Tyson,” said Fury’s manager Spencer Brown, talking about Tyson’s co-promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank.