Sour Grapes: Fury refuses to accept defeat against Usyk

Tyson Fury sounded like a poor sport after his loss to unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday night. He said the judges gave the Ukrainian an “early Christmas present” rather than admit he had lost to the top man in their rematch in Riyadh.

The statistics tell the story

Usyk (23-0, 12 KOs) came out and schooled Fury (34-2, 24 KOs) Saturday night at Kingdom Arena. Oleksandr was aggressive, connected on more shots, hurt Fury multiple times and deserved the 12-round unanimous decision the judges gave him.

The scores were 116-112, 116-112 and 116-112. Fury says his promoter, Frank Warren, beat him by three or four rounds, which means zero.

Usyk vs. Fury 2 Punch Stats

– Tyson Fury: 144 of 509 hits for 28%
– Oleksandr Usyk: 179 of 423 for 42%

“Yeah, I was pretty confident. I thought I’d won that fight. I thought I’d won both fights, but now I’ve got two losses on my record,” Tyson Fury told the post-fight press conferencesounding like a person in denial about his loss to Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday night in Riyadh.

“Again, I’ll always believe until the day I die, I won that fight. I was on the front foot all night, landing the body and the head. (My promoter) Frank (Warren) gave me three or four rounds. Most people had at least two. It’s a bit tough, actually.

“When you don’t get the knockout. That’s what happens. You can’t guarantee a win,” Fury said.

The worst type of fighter you can have is one who won’t admit when they’re wrong and didn’t do their job right. When you tell them they’re not up to par, they deny it and think you’re the problem.

Fury is an example of this type of person. Put him on the battlefield in a war situation where he has to follow orders, he’s totally unreliable and you can’t trust him to do what he’s told. Put him in the point position to lead the squad, and he would be unreliable because he can’t admit his mistakes. Fury cannot face the truth about itself.

“I don’t know if you’ve seen the score cards. A judge gave Usyk the final seven rounds. The other two judges in the last seven rounds gave him one round each,” promoter Frank Warren said of the judges. “How on earth can you say he won one round out of the last seven?”

“A Christmas Gift”

“I think he got a little Christmas present from these judges,” Fury said of Usyk. “I have no doubt that I won the fight.”

“Bob Arum went 8-4 for Tyson,” Fury’s manager Spencer Brown said of Tyson’s co-promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank.