Oleksandr Usyk v Tyson Fury 2, December Twenty First

[Spicoli]

[Memphis]

I'm glad Usyk got the nod. The right man won the fight. I didn't want there to be that 'I told you so' from Fury if he got the win. I didn't want how incredible Usyk is to be buried by Fury under a veil of 'messing about' in the first fight. It was a fairly even fight. I thought Usyk punctuated more rounds or had more moments than Fury and whilst close, was a clear winner. We tend to want a close fight to be reflected in close scores. That doesn't have to be the case. If you win a round, you win a round. It's as simple as that. It could be by the slimmest of margins. Do that 12 times over and on paper, you've waltzed a fight that's very close. Now neither man did that. But this idea that Usyk winning 8-4, or the other way around by the way, being a nonsense. I just don't get it.

I understand there was an AI scoring system and it scored it wide for Usyk. I also understand that Fury and his supporters think it's a joke. Of course they do. Maybe they're right? But maybe the AI scoring is bang on the money. Maybe it just scores a round on it's merits. Maybe it doesn't care if you did better than in fight one. Or better than you did in a previous round. It certainly doesn't score with sentiment, it isn't biased. It doesn't see a close fight and subconsciously begin to share out the rounds in an act of fairness.

The take away from this shouldn't be the scoring or Fury or Warren crying. It should be how utterly brilliant Usyk is. How supremely skilled he is and how hard as fucking nails he is. Those two things combined makes for a truly remarkable fighter, who it has been our absolute pleasure to watch throughout his incredible career as an amateur and a pro.

Part of me doesn't want him to fight Dubois. No offence to Daniel. Despite being annoying as fuck with this new vocal approach, he's got decent form and probably deserves it. But how many fights does Usyk have left in him? I don't see a Daniel Dubois fight as a worthy book end to such a great career.

[Beanz]

This is the price you pay for when self belief loses all perspective and turns into arrogance. Fury did what he could and played his part in an absorbing fight but Usyk threw and landed more. Not only that but the Ukrainian's shots were far more accurate and effective, clear concussive punches rocking Fury's head back and combinations that made it clear who was doing the better work. Fury was far too content to think he was winning rounds simply because he was not being backed up and battered for all three minutes. He started well and had the champion pushed in pockets with some tricky moments but never really capitalised on any of the successful work he did. When switching to southpaw it was the smaller man who took that opportunity to repeatedly catch Fury with lefts to the head.

It is no mean feat to get past Fury's jab and pop up on the inside to land shots from some crazy angles but that is exactly what Usyk did all night long. Fury was landing double jabs and body shots early on but as soon as Usyk adjusted and created angles that allowed him to work Fury had no answer, the uppercut Fury threw in the Fifth was something I was expecting to trouble Usyk with all night but that threat never materialised. Usyk landed a lot of overhand rights that Fury could not avoid and seemed to hurt Fury more with body shots, supposedly Usyk's own Achilles heel. It was Fury's weight in the end that proved to be a weakness rather than a strength, slowing him down and ultimately leading to his downfall.

It is no good having all the power in the world if you sacrifice the speed that will allow you to land with it. Fair play to the big man even with all that blubber his stamina puts many smaller and younger heavyweights to shame but Usyk is on another level and the consistency and accuracy of clever combinations and hurtful single shots from the smaller man added up over twelve rounds to become an insurmountable avalanche. Fury could not smother or nullify that kind of quality work and ran out of spite and ideas half way through.

Usyk has nothing to prove and Fury has nowhere to go. 'Found out' is a bit strong for two fights in which Fury surely pushed his opponent closer to defeat than he has ever been, but 'found wanting' is I think fair given all the hyperbolic nonsense we have had to put up with from Fury for years now.