Commentator Paulie Malignaggi believes Tyson Fury gave away the 11th and 12th rounds by choosing to hold and not working in his loss to to unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk last Saturday night in Riyadh.
Malignaggi felt that it was a close fight going into the 11th, but the 281-lb Fury (34-2-1, 24 KOs) appeared tired from the extra 19 lbs of weight that he’d packed on for this fight from the previous one. He didn’t have the conditioning to finish strong when he needed to in the final two rounds.
Usyk (23-0, 12 KOs) won the fight by a 12-round unanimous decision by the scores 116-112 x 3 to ruin Fury’s chances of getting a trilogy against him or going into his all-British clash against Anthony Joshua on a winning note.
Fury’s Fatigue
Tyson Fury tried some things differently. He tried to make it physical in the second half of the fight, but I’m not sure that was design or because he was getting tired and trying to hold on a little too much,” said Paulie Malignaggi on his channel, talking about Tyson Fury’s loss to Oleksandr Usyk in their rematch last Saturday night.
“We saw Tyson Fury weigh-in heavy, and we expected him to try and make it a physical fight. Usyk is not the easiest guy to track down. These are not the legs of Deontay Wilder, where you just walk up to him and push him back, and try to put him on the back foot.
“Usyk has those angles, spins around constantly, and creates new punch angles. He constantly has those feints and herky-jerky moves where he’s going underneath the jab of Fury, coming over the top with left hands,” said Malignaggi.
Without Usyk just standing there stationary as Deontay Wilder had, Fury couldn’t walk up to him, club him with shots, or grab him to start leading. Usyk kept moving and using feints that prevented Fury from capitalizing on his size advantage like he had against Deontay.
Usyk’s Control
“I like that he kept setting that trap with the jabs to the stomach and left hands to the head,” said Malignaggi. “A couple of times, it worked, and he was able to land some clean shots. Fury didn’t perform badly. He had a couple of sharp one-twos in the fight. We saw the black eye of Usyk on his left eye from some of the sharp right hands that Fury did land. He landed some decent uppercuts in the fight.”
Fury didn’t perform badly, but he certainly was NOT good or great in that fight. Usyk was merely good, but that was enough to beat this version of the 36-year-old Gypsy King.
“Overall, the energy of the fight, the way the fight was carried, the way the fight was dictated,” said Malignaggi. “It was dedicated in a way where Usyk was deciding how they were going to fight. I felt it was competitive the whole way, but I felt Usyk sealed it in the last two rounds.
“Those two last rounds, Fury did more, looking to hold, trying to waste time rather than trying to win the rounds. That was gut check time when you had a competitive fight. I felt Usyk was slightly up going into the 11th round, or maybe the fight was even. But those last two rounds sealed the deal. I don’t think you can have a question mark about who you felt deserved to win the fight,” said Malignaggi.
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