The judges agreed on the final score in Saturday’s rematch between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury – 116-112 for Usyk across the board – but the route each took to get there was very different.
Gerardo Martinez, Patrick Morley and Ignacio Robles only agreed on seven of the 12 rounds.
All three judges scored:
- Rounds 4 and 5 for Fury
- Rounds 6, 7 and 8 for Usyk
- Rounds 10 and 11 for Usyk
The rounds they disagreed on, then, were the first, second, third, ninth and 12th:
- Round 1: Martinez and Morley gave it to Fury; Robles gave it to Usyk
- Round 2: Martinez and Morley gave it to Usyk; Robles gave it to Fury
- Round 3: Martinez and Robles gave it to Usyk; Morley gave it to Fury
- Round 9: Martinez and Morley gave it to Usyk; Robles gave it to Fury
- Round 12: Morley and Robles gave it to Usyk; Martinez gave it to Fury
If we were to take a score from “majority rules” – in which a fighter gets the edge from at least two of the three judges for that round – then the final score would’ve been even wider, 117-111, or nine rounds to three, with Fury being in the majority for the first round and sweeping the fourth and fifth.
On the actual tallies, Fury was slightly ahead after five rounds, 49-46 on Morley’s scorecard and 48-47 in the eyes of Martinez and Robles.
But then the tide turned:
- Martinez had Usyk winning rounds 6-11 but losing the 12th.
- Morley had Usyk winning every single round from the sixth until the end.
- Robles had Usyk winning rounds 6-8, losing the ninth and then winning rounds 10-12.
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter and . He is the co-host of the . David’s book, “,” is available on Amazon.