Tyson Fury posted a message on Instagram today, telling unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk that he made a “mistake” by not finishing him off last May in their first fight. Now, Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) says he’s going to make Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) “feel the wrath’ on December 21st in their rematch in Riyadh.
The Gypsy King has been stewing on his loss, and it’s got to be eating away at him, the shame, and he’s finally chosen to pipe up.
Fury has been mostly quiet since losing to Usyk, which is interpreted by fans that he’s a fallen monarch. He’s been booted out of the kingdom and lying low, trying to understand what went wrong. It’s pretty obvious what Fury did wrong.
He spent most of the Usyk fight, resting with his back against the ropes, using the same strategy that he’s employed in his victory against Wladimir Klitschko in 2015.
The difference was, Usyk wasn’t afraid to unload on him with artillery, unlike Wladimir, and had his way with the Gypsy King that night. If Usyk hadn’t let his foot off the throttle, he would have had an easy knockout in the final three rounds. Fury was there for the taking after getting the tar knocked out of him in round nine.
“You had your shot but couldn’t finish the job! Mistake. Now you’re about to feel the wrath of a menace,” said Tyson Fury on Instagram, sending a message to Oleksandr Usyk.
“Gypsy King 2024 is coming for you. December 21 is mine🖕🏼me against the world 🌍 incoming 3x heavyweight champ.”
If Fury is going to have any chance in the second fight, he’s got to get off his backside, lose some weight, and regain the form that he had in his second fight with Deontay Wilder in 2020. Only that version of Fury has any shot at defeating Usyk.
The version of Fury that scrapped by with a narrow win over Klitschko in 2015 would get machine-gunned to pieces on the ropes by Usyk. To win the rematch, Fury must go on the attack, let his hands go, and not be afraid to resort to the old dirty tricks he used on Deontay. He can’t beat a talent like Usyk by fighting under the Marquess of Queensberry’s rules because he’s not gifted enough.
“Why would you go out there and back up against Usyk? He’s a small guy. You don’t back up against a small guy. If you back up against a small guy, you give them confidence. He gave him confidence, so now look what happened,” said Roy Jones to talk Sports Boxing about the mistake Tyson Fury made against Oleksandr Usyk in their fight earlier this year on May 18th.
The reason Fury backed up against Usyk is two-fold:
- Carrying too much weight
- Recycled the Klitschko game plan
It was foolish on Fury’s part to come into the fight with so much fat around his midsection, but he clearly had packed too much weight after his fight against Francis Ngannou. Even with back-to-back training camps, Fury couldn’t wittle off enough weight to be mobile.
Recycling the Klitschko game plan was dumb on Fury’s part because that strategy would never work because Usyk was not afraid to throw punches. He wouldn’t respect Fury’s weak power like the gunshy Wladimir did nine years ago. If Fury’s trainer, Sugarhill Steward, is the one who came up with that game plan, he needs to fire him if he hasn’t already given him the boot.
“This time, the confidence is going to be a lot tougher because Usyk now knows in his head because in the first fight, he didn’t know he could put Fury down. Now, he knows he can put Fury down. If he goes out there as his normal, methodical Usyk, who is very smart and very methodical in everything he does, he’ll beat Fury again,” said Jones.
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