Oleksandr Usyk did it again, defeating Tyson Fury via decision to likely put their long-running feud to bed.
In what was a closely-contested and hard-fought bout of intelligence and skill, it seemed Usyk had done just enough, although the judges had him a comprehensive winner by the end.
All three judges, Geraldo Martinez, Ignacio Robles, and Patrick Morley, scored it 116-112 for Usyk, 23-0 (14 KOs), who retained his WBA, WBC, and WBO heavyweight titles.
It was every bit as absorbing as their May fight without being so spectacular. There were no huge moments of jeopardy, and no real spells of dominance.
Promoter Frank Warren pointed out afterwards that many of the rounds were scored differently, in that there was not a clear winner in many of the sessions.
Before a star-studded crowd at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, with the likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan, Jason Statham, Lennox Lewis, Oscar De La Hoya, Roberto Duran, and Wladimir Klitschko watching on, Fury walked to the ring first, with Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas giving way to the Notorious BIG’s Hypnotize.
Usyk followed, and knelt in his corner and prayed when he arrived in the ring.
The Saudi Arabian national anthem was performed first. Then, Fury shadowboxed to God Save the King, and a choir sang Ukraine’s anthem with a typically stoic Usyk, hand on heart, singing along, almost in a trance.
Fury tried to talk to Usyk during the pre-fight instructions, but Usyk simply stared through him.
Still, the Englishman was quickly out of his corner to start the fight, trying to get his jab motoring. The champion parried and looked to counter. Fury tried to chase a few jabs with right hands and, at one point, swung a right to Usyk’s body but missed the target in a tense opening session.
Trainer SugarHill Steward told Fury he “was boxing good” but warned him Usyk was looking to catch him on the way out.
Usyk prodded away at Fury’s fleshy body. The Englishman was noticeably carrying more weight than he had done for the first fight in May, and while Usyk was keeping Tyson occupied with his busy hands and endless movement, Fury clumped him with a right near the end of the session.
“You don’t have to load up,” Andy Lee told Fury in the corner. “You hurt him with the right hand.”
There was not much between them in the third. Usyk’s activity might have tipped the scales in his favor, though Fury’s jab might have caught the eye of others.
In the fourth, Usyk landed a clean overhand left. Fury spent moments in the southpaw stance as the fight progressed, but from the orthodox stance he landed a right hand.
Fury appeared deceptively fit and slick. He landed a good uppercut in the fifth, one that was clean enough that caused those in the crowd to collectively gasp. Fury pressed forward. He crashed a right hand into Usyk’s belly. The same shot thudded home again moments later. Usyk threw two lefts of his own downstairs, but it was the clearest round of the fight up to that point and it belonged to Fury.
Steward urged the 6ft 9ins former champion to stay focused, slow it down and to keep his hands up.
Always moving, Usyk landed pesky shots in combination through the sixth and thudded in a heavy-looking arcing left hand with 30 seconds remaining in the frame that shook Fury. It was the biggest shot landed up to that point.
The pace slowed in the first half of the seventh, perhaps both awaiting their second wind, and Fury tried to send a right hand as an instant reply to a left.
In the corner, Russ Anber tended to Usyk’s swelling left cheek before the eighth.
Promoter Frank Warren applauded a Fury uppercut in that round but the action was paused following a headclash midway through, but fortunately neither fighter was left bloodied or damaged. Usyk fired into the body, and then switched his attack upstairs. Fury’s output was slowing and Usyk was fulfilling his pre-fight promise to not leave Fury alone.
SugarHill asked Fury to go forward, and said he was only getting tagged when he was in reverse. “Back him the fuck up,” ordered Steward.
It was the ninth round in May that produced such dramatics, with Fury hurt, given a count and somehow able to survive a terrible crisis.
A couple of times in the ninth tonight, now as the challenger, Fury threw a right hand and claimed Usyk. One wondered if the heavier Fury had faith in his engine, but his punch and hold tactics actually served to disrupt the champion’s rhythm.
Neither looked to be breathing particularly heavily in their corners between rounds, such is their conditioning and experience.
A right to the body and one to the head, followed by Fury clutching onto Usyk and pushing him back, should have drained the Ukrainian, but there was no sign of him slowing. Fury wasn’t afraid to use his bulk to envelope the Ukrainian, containing the former cruiserweight king’s work with his mountainous physique. It was a frustrating session for the champion.
Fury had a small mark under his right eye and Steward asked him to keep grinding and grabbing.
This was more economical and conservative Fury than the one who boxed in the Fight of the Year contender in May. He was methodical and deliberate, at times able to stifle Usyk’s familiar flow.
Usyk bowled over a left that cannoned off Fury’s bald dome in the 11th and, near the end of the session, Usyk timed Fury and landed two more clean and clear blows.
“There is no tomorrow,” Steward said, with urgency, before the final round. “The fight’s too fucking close. You’ve got to take this motherfucker. Give it everything you’ve got, Tyson.”
In truth, both had their moments in an engrossing and captivating 12th but, as per the rest of the fight, neither dominated.
Fury celebrated at the bell, Usyk sunk to his knees in prayer and it went to the scorecards.
Fury, 34-2-1 (24 KOs), danced in the corner as his team removed his gloves but it was nip and tuck and the result hung in the balance.
Fury shook his head, shrugged, and walked off after the verdict was read out.
“I swear to God, I thought I won it by at least three rounds,” the 36-year-old Gypsy King fumed on his way back to the locker-room.
Usyk remained in the ring, and, asked about the scorecards and margin of victory, the 37-year-old said: “I win. It’s good. It’s not my deal. Thank you, God.”