The highly anticipated heavyweight title bout between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk definitely lived up to the hype after the two undefeated fighters went the distance in a thrilling back-and-forth battle. In the end, two judges scored the fight in favor of Usyk, who becomes the first undisputed heavyweight champion in the four-belt era.
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The judges scored it 115-112, 114-113 and 113-114.
Fury narrowly escaped defeat in his last fight against former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, and once again couldn’t maintain his championship form versus Usyk on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Fury may have underestimated both Ngannou and Usyk and Saturday’s loss might be further evidence of a steady decline after a long reign as the WBC heavyweight champion.
Usyk’s technical prowess and consistency paid off in the later rounds after Fury dominated the middle rounds. Usyk was able to rally toward the end of the fight and scored a knockdown on Fury in the ninth round. Initially considered an underdog, Usyk’s odds climbed as the fight neared, but Fury still entered the ring as the favorite after looking absolutely fit at Friday’s weigh-in.
After the fight, Fury said he intends to enact the rematch clause against Usyk and fight him again in October.
Fury showed great boxing technique early, upending the narrative that Usyk’s boxing technique would be too much for the bigger man. Fury’s distance management was key as he popped with clean jabs and dug hard to Usyk’s body.
Fury was confident enough as he seized control of the action to begin taunting Usyk. The one thing that was questionable in Fury’s approach, even as he was firmly in control of the action, was his willingness to move backward, often fighting off the ropes or while trapped in the corner.
USYK GOING TO TOWN ON TYSON FURY pic.twitter.com/pJajjSbuiu
— BetMGM 🦁 (@BetMGM) May 18, 2024
Things started to turn in Round 7, as Usyk found more success with his constant forward pressure and overhand lefts, taking advantage of Fury fighting off the back foot so frequently. But Round 9 was the true turning point as Usyk landed several clean shots before Fury began stumbling around the ring. Usyk continued to swarm with big shots until Fury dropped to the canvas.
The big moment started with a clean straight left to Fury’s jaw that sent Fury back into the ropes. Usyk chased Fury around the ring as Fury stumbled on rubber legs, landing lefts and rights. Fury finally dropped and as he beat the 10 count, the bell sounded, likely saving Fury from suffering a stoppage by knockout.
After the knockdown, Usyk never took his foot off the gas and outworked Fury over the second half of the fight.
With the win, Usyk joins Terence Crawford and Naoya Inoue as the only male fighters to have earned undisputed status across two weight classes in the four-belt era, having previously been undisputed at cruiserweight.
After suffering the first defeat in his storied career, Fury maintained his belief that he won the fight but said he had no doubt he would activate his contractual right to a rematch. Fury also added a questionable statement seemingly suggesting that the judges favored Usyk because of the ongoing conflict surrounding Russia’s invasion of Usyk’s native Ukraine.
“I believe I won that fight,” Fury said. “I believe he won a few of the rounds, but I won a majority of them. I believe it was, what can you do, one of the decisions in boxing. We both put on a great fight, best we could do. And you know, his country is at war, some people are siding with the country at war. Make no mistake, I won that fight in my opinion, and I’ll be back. I got a rematch clause.”
For his part, Usyk was quick to say he would have no problem accepting the rematch.
“Yes, of course,” Usyk said. “If he wants, I’m ready for a rematch.”
Elsewhere on the card, Jai Opetaia regained the cruiserweight title he never lost in the ring against a familiar face. Opetaia battered Mairis Briedis before surviving a late onslaught to capture the IBF title at 200 pounds. The native of Australia is undefeated at 25-0 with 19 knockouts on his resume. Plus, Anthony Cacace pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the year in stopping Joe Cordina to claim the IBF super featherweight title. The 35-year-old badly hurt Cordina early in the fight as the referee was stepping in to break up a clinch and Cordina never fully recovered as Cacace poured on the pressure before the fight was waved off.
Fight card, results
- Oleksandr Usyk (c) def. Tyson Fury (c) via split decision (115-112, 113-114, 114-113)
- Jai Opetaia (c) def. Mairis Briedis via unanimous decision (117-111, 116-112, 116-112)
- Anthony Cacace def. Joe Cordina (c) via eighth-round knockout
- Agit Kabayel def. Frank Sanchez via seventh-round knockout
- Moses Itauma def. Ilja Mezencev via second-round knockout
- Mark Chamberlain def. Joshua Oluwaseun Wahab via first-round knockout
- Robin Sirwan Safar def. Sergey Kovalev via unanimous decision (97-92, 99-90, 95-94)
- David Nyika def. Michael Seitz via sixth-round knockout
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