For Tyson Fury, there are parallels between his multi-fight rivalry with Deontay Wilder, which stretched from December 2018 to October 2021, and a potential multi-fight rivalry with Oleksandr Usyk.
He hopes, in the case of Usyk, that they will end up sharing three fights, for this will mean Fury has won the rematch, set for December 21 in Riyadh. He also knows, following his experience with Wilder, that he needs to do more on December 21 than just box his way to a victory and rely on three ringside judges to deliver him this win officially.
Against Wilder, of course, Fury was held to a controversial draw the first time around, something he later rectified to the tune of two stoppage wins. However, against Usyk in May, Fury was left ruing not the judges’ opinions (this time correct) but instead his own inability to exert dominance over Usyk and prevent the fight lasting as long as it did. Second time around, he refuses to make the same mistake. Second time around, he will build on whatever momentum he experiences in the fight rather than take it for granted.
“There’s no secret I’m going in there to knock him out because I don’t think I’m not going to get a decision no matter what I do,” Fury, 34-1-1 (24), said in an interview with Undisputed. “I don’t think I’m going to get a boxing decision, so I’m going to have to take out the judges’ hands like I did in America that time. I’ve got to get him out of there.”
Taking out Oleksandr Usyk is easier said than done. In a pro career spanning 22 fights, and 11 years, the brilliant Ukrainian has yet to come close to losing, much less being stopped.
Not only that, such is his intelligence and counterpunching ability, the risk of trying to stop Usyk is forever heightened by his capacity to use an opponent’s aggression and ambition against them. It is for this reason, as well as his toughness, that few opponents have even considered the prospect of stopping Usyk, 22-0 (14).
It is for this reason, too, that Tyson Fury, despite his size and his record in previous rematches, will have to produce the performance of a lifetime to become the first man to achieve this.
By Elliot Worsell