Fury v Usyk is on.............!

[Beanz]

I haven't rewatched last nights fight, but I can't really see how you could have scored it for Fury. It was certainly close and I must give Fury much more credit than I did pre-fight. He turned up and despite his pre-fight BS made sure he was on his A-game all night. He had to be and he knew it.

The accolades for Fury's ability to survive do not paper over the cracks that have been exposed again and again and surely now nobody can deny that for a big man he is not the biggest hitter and nor is he the elusive ghost or defensive whizz he pretends to be. Trilogies with Wilder and Chisora make that abundantly clear.

The big man brought with him into the ring, echoes of Sullivan, Corbett and Mace. A flexibility and repertoire of fundamentals, tricks and combinations that makes all the bragging even more unnecessary. Fury's own over estimations and exaggerations seem to earn him a bit of short sightedness from pundits who forget to acknowledge the difficulty his not always brilliant opponents manage to negate in getting close enough to someone with such a huge reach advantage and clock him on the chin.

Usyk was the real summation though, of all that keeps fans watching the sometimes boringly predictable heavyweight title bouts, an always ready time bomb waiting to explode in the smallest of windows. He has absorbed so many of the styles that allowed previous heavyweights to etch their exploits onto the back pages, that he can sometimes utilise a handful of them in one round.

The idea that Usyk looked like a defeated fighter with his spirit broken at any point in the fight is laughable. Fury clearly hurt Usyk at points but the only really dominant one sided beat down happened before us all in round nine. In that momentous round Usyk showed his class, superior skills and ring-craft. He did everything but put a full stop on it and made Fury look like the smaller man. From that first big left ramming Fury's insults right back down his gobshite mouth, Usyk zipped up any escape routes and should be given way more credit for his finishing skills.

It wasn't that Fury was too tentative and failed to capitalize on his own successes. It was much more of a case that Usyk did not allow him the space or time to dictate things like he usually can. The mind games were pointless and Fury was not quick enough, mentally or physically to plot his own route to victory.

Great fight and one worthy of the undisputed title it bestowed upon the real champion. A man that conducted himself impeccably in the face of great ( and often classless) provocation. A calm Frazier to Fury's poor Ali impersonation, Usyk got his just reward for not letting the enormity of the opportunity distract him from the task in front of him.

[TIC]

i also want to thank oleksandr for showing that bridgerweight is a waste of time