Oleksandr Usyk wore a hitman outfit during today’s press conference to send a clear message to the former WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury that his time is up, and he’s going to be finished on December 21st. Unified champion Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) will be coming to knockout Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) and send his career plummeting.
Usyk to Finish Fury
A knockout loss for the 36-year-old Fury will destroy what’s left of his popularity, reinforcing the view many fans already have that he’s washed up.
Fury is going to have to raise his game considerably to find the remaining spark that he once had to prevent Usyk from bringing about the inevitable end. I don’t believe Fury has got it anymore.
The $200 million that Fury has rapidly accumulated in the last four years has softened him, and rich foods have accelerated the natural aging process. He looks like his dad, who doesn’t look young either.
Usyk was prevented from knocking out Fury by the referee in round nine earlier this year on May 18th, when he pulled him off the stricken fighter when he was one punch away from the coupe de grace in Riyadh. The referee gave Fury a standing eight count that made no sense and looked odd.
The referee’s move almost impacted the outcome because Usyk just barely won by a 12-round split decision. Had Fury won the fight, the referee’s decision to stop the action in the ninth for the standing eight could have resulted in a massive backlash. As it is, many fans felt that the referee was showing favoritism to save Fury from being knocked out.
Despite Usyk being the champion in the rematch, he’s the B-side in this fight and will be seen as the challenger. That means he will need to focus on getting the knockout to ensure he gets the win.
Fury Holding Out Hope
“A little more focused and a little more lack of complacency, and I should do the job,” said Tyson Fury during today’s press conference for his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk. “My rematch with people always ends one way. I always end up knocking them out in the rematch.”
What Fury fails to mention are the fighters he knocked out in rematches. He conveniently left that part out because these are the three he stopped in second fights: John McDermott, Derek Chisora, and Deontay Wilder. Knocking out those three doesn’t mean that Fury is going to be able to do the same thing against Usyk because there’s a gigantic gulf in talent between him and those fighters.
“Fury is probably going to shake it up a little bit and try to get that jab going and the uppercuts, everything that worked between rounds four and seven for him,” said Adam Smith to Boxing News. “I spoke to Sugarhill Steward, and he said, ‘Just don’t get caught.’ Can Usyk hurt Fury?”
Fury has already said what his game plan is going to be for the rematch. He’s going to use his jab, uppercuts, feints, and pressure to try and wear Usyk down. It’s the same thing that Fury had success with in the first half of his fight with Usyk on May 18th. Those things worked until the bottom dropped out in round seven, and then it was all downhill. Things got bad for Fury in round nine because he got hurt by a scorching left hook from Usyk.
“If Fury is going to go for it early, will he leave enough gas in the tank for the second half if Usyk survives the storm? The first two or three rounds of the fight are so important because, in the first round, Usyk did something that confused Fury a little bit.
“He made Fury a little bit lackadaisical. He chased him around the corners, pinned him a lot, and I think he got a really good start to the fight,” said Smith.
The feints that Usyk used as Fury tied in knots, not knowing when the punches were coming. Fury’s punches were missing, and he wasn’t effective with the ones he did land. In the first half of the fight, Fury landed some good shots that had Usyk backing off, but it wasn’t consistent enough.
By the seventh round, Usyk landed a left hand with full power on Fury’s nose, and he was clearly bothered by the shot because he backed up to the ropes. It was all domination from that point, with Usyk tagging with shots. Fury was perched against the ropes like a giant bird, too tired and hurt to do much more than cover up.
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