Tyson Fury’s lead trainer, Sugarhill Steward, is still defensive about Tyson’s recent loss to Oleksandr Usyk as they prepare for their rematch on December 21st in Riyadh. Why is Sugarhill so defensive? That’s what fans want to know.
Sugarhill blames the loss on Fury getting caught in the ninth round, which suggests he’s trying to sidestep blame to save his head.
As the captain of the Fury ship, Sugarhill bears the responsibility for his defeat against Usyk on May 18th, and he was the one who was barking instructions in his corner, which led to his demise.
During an interview this past week, Sugarhill was irritatable about simple questions about what went wrong in Fury’s 12-round split decision loss to the unified heavyweight champion Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) on May 18th.
This can be interpreted as a sign that Sugarhill is trying to shut off further questions about his handling of the catastrophe with his corner advice during the sinking episode. Some fans believe that Sugarhill was giving the wrong advice in the corner, panicking, barking instructions, and was useless in helping to the struggling Gypsy King Fury.
“He got caught. That’s what went wrong. He got caught in the ninth round. What more am I supposed to say? In the ninth round, he got caught,” said a prickly Sugarhill Steward to Boxing King Media when asked ‘What went wrong’ in Tyson Fury’s loss to Oleksandr Usyk on May 18th.
As you can see with the “He got caught” comment by Sugarhill, he sounds like a classic example of a person trying to deflect criticism from himself by making it seem like it was just something that happened.
The reality is it goes back to Sugarhill, the trainer who was giving Fury instructions. He was fighting with his back against the ropes instead of in the center of the ring and just a sitting duck for Usyk’s left hand. The blame goes to Sugarhill because he shouldn’t have let Fury fight from the area of the ring.
“It was a close fight already. He got caught, and Usyk wins. What else is there to talk about? It’s called a close fight. If it’s a close fight, how can anybody in the world score it for one person or another? If you say it’s close, if it’s very f**** close, how the f*** do you score it for one person or another?” said a testy-sounding Sugarhill, who at this point in the interview is looking angry, reacting to simple questions.
“How can you be so adamant about, ‘I won’ or, ‘I didn’t win,’ or the other person won or didn’t win if it was that close? It’s close. If it’s a close fight, guess what? You get three decisions. Either you won, you drew, or you lost. It’s as simple as that,” said Steward
Sugarhill is convinced that it was a close fight last time, but it wasn’t if you consider that Fury should have lost four of the first six rounds and then crumbled from the ninth round. It should have been a knockout win for Usyk. So, Sugarhill’s defensive comments about the fight being close are a smokescreen. Of course, he won’t say that Fury was blown out because it reflects on him as a trainer. He failed him.
“He’s about as good as he was before the fight. He’s always been a good fighter,” said Sugarhill when asked how good is Oleksandr Usyk.
Sugarhill didn’t seem interested in giving his thoughts on how good Usyk was during his fight with Fury, and that could be interpreted as a sign that he didn’t want to give away any tips that Oleksandr’s teams could take advantage of in the rematch. It doesn’t really matter.
Fury is up against in this fight. Sugarhill can be mute in the lead-up, and it won’t change anything about what’s going to play out on December 21st. Usyk knows how to beat him and will capitalize on the things he learned from their previous fight.
Usyk discovered these weaknesses in Fury’s game:
- No inside game
- Vulnerable to flurries
- Punch resistance weak
- Stamina problems.
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