It’s rare that a fight can be considered “historic” before it even happens. But the fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usik definitely seemed worthy of such a high title. After all, there hasn’t been an outright champion in the heavyweight division since 2000, when Lennox Lewis was stripped of one of his belts for refusing to fight John Ruiz. Since then, boxing has changed a lot: suffice it to say that the number of major belts has increased and the number of superfights held has decreased dramatically.
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Usik – Fury: Alexander is the absolute champion! Tyson’s historic defeat. LIVE
The fight between Fury and Usik may not have happened either. The demands of the Gypsy King, who demanded incredible things from his opponent, turned out to be too great. But in recent years, guys with virtually bottomless wallets have burst into boxing: Saudi promoters. They were able to satisfy the financial appetites of all interested parties. And the matter was left only in the hands of the boxers: two undefeated and very dangerous guys.
However, even after all the financial and organizational details were worked out, the battle failed once. Fury was so actively preparing for the fight that he received a deep cut and had to reschedule the fight. Fortunately, no more similar cases of force majeure occurred. Tyson and Alexander approached the main fight of their lives, being in optimal physical and psychological condition. In any case, that’s what it looked like from the outside.
The boxers entered the fight as concentrated as possible, spent the first seconds actively, but then, as if remembering the game plan, they went into careful reconnaissance. Both actively worked on their feet, but the precise blows could be counted on the fingers of one hand. However, Fury still put on a show: already in the first round he turned dodging the ropes into funny antics, which caused a strong reaction from the fans. Almost immediately, Tyson missed a heavy punch, but turned it into a circus act.
The second round began again for Tyson with a missed power shot. It seemed like the Gypsy King was too interested in the show and had no time to focus on the fight. However, sometimes the Brit would fire up and hit Alexander’s head with his long punches. Furthermore, Fury quickly remembered the main move, keeping his opponent further and further away with his long arms. In the third round, Usyk already began to fail periodically, although he acted as carefully as possible.
It seemed like Tyson was slowly getting the hang of his boxing, not forgetting to periodically grimace. Usyk did not change his tactics: he surrounded his opponent with fast legs, took corners and gained distance, which did not always work. In addition, little by little a cut over Usyk’s right eye grew. Fury, by the way, did not joke about body blows at press conferences – Alexander was receiving more and more blows clearly above the belt.
Usyk also approached Tyson, but his attacks were not considered too dangerous: after the first blow, the Briton pounced and finished. The Gypsy King himself hit the opponent hard again and again: even from outside him you can see how painful Fury’s blows were on the Ukrainian’s body. In the sixth round, Alexander received serious damage, although he was not really shocked. Tyson took half of the fight with confidence, although it seemed like he was only working at 70-80% of his maximum.
It cannot be said that Usik could not do anything at all: he periodically broke his opponent’s long arms and scored series. However, Fury seemed even lighter and carefully extinguished almost all of the opponent’s attack impulses from him. But the ninth round was a real failure for him: Tyson missed a lot of punches and was knocked down, having danced on shaky legs for about 20 seconds before that! Only the gong saved the gypsy king.
Tyson Fury
Photo: Getty Images
It seemed that Fury had no time to recover during the minute of rest: he began the tenth round with a high block. But here Usik no longer forced events: he felt safe and he himself began to entertain the public, parodying the demolition of the Gypsy King. However, the fight was once again close and there was no guarantee that Alexander would be ahead on points. Everything could be decided in the last two rounds, in which the athletes arrived quite happy and energetic.
The eleventh round was tense, but not the most hectic. And at the same time, they were even again, although it seemed that Tyson generally lacked more. And in the last round, Usik openly opted for the knockout, but the Gypsy King did not allow himself to be hit hard and even happily hid his hands behind his back. As expected, it was up to the judges to decide the fate of the fight. And they gave the victory to Usik, although by split decision! Alexander becomes the absolute heavyweight champion.
