Tyson Fury doesn’t believe he was “robbed” of a victory in his first fight with Oleksandr Usyk.
The former WBC heavyweight champion has watched footage of the extremely competitive 12-round bout that resulted in his only professional loss “100 times,” Fury told Uncrowned. The brash Brit is certain that he did enough to defeat Usyk and become boxing’s first fully unified heavyweight champion of the four-belt era.
Seven months of hindsight have nonetheless encouraged Fury to account for human error in the completely subjective science of judging boxing. This sport’s most spectacular showman isn’t sure what American Mike Fitzgerald, who scored Usyk a 114-113 winner, or Spain’s Manuel Palomo, who credited Usyk with a 115-112 win, could see from their potentially obstructed positions around the ring.
Fury beat Usyk by one point, 114-113, according to Canadian judge Craig Metcalfe. If not for the late-ninth-round knockdown for which Ukraine’s Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) was credited when the ropes held up a dazed Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs), they would’ve fought to a split draw May 18 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
If Fury is bitter about his first professional defeat, however, he sure hid it well during the buildup toward their 12-round rematch Saturday night at Kingdom Arena (DAZN pay-per-view, $39.99).
“I feel like there’s so many different elements to judging,” Fury told Uncrowned. “You know, 10 people can watch a fight and six of them will have it the same, four won’t or whatever. I don’t think there’s really any such things as robberies anymore, because it’s just opinions, isn’t it? Three judges ringside and each of them might see the fight differently and might score it differently. It’s just how an individual sees a contest and how they judge it. Sometimes it’s very difficult to score.”
In an effort to both kill time and develop a better understanding of judges’ duties, Fury rewatched two closely contested, high-profile fights during his recently completed training camp in Malta. Fury and members of his team came away with different takes on Artur Beterbiev’s majority points victory over Dmitry Bivol on Oct. 12 and Katie Taylor’s unanimous decision over Amanda Serrano on Nov. 15.
“I watched a couple fights that people said was robberies, big robberies,” Fury said. “The first one was Bivol versus Beterbiev, and I hear a lot of people say, ‘Bivol won it. Bivol won this fight. Yada, yada, yada.’ So I sat down the next day and I judged the fight, non-biased, and I judged the fight round-by-round, on a 10-9 must system, and I had it exactly the same score as Glenn Feldman, two rounds up for Beterbiev (115-113). But my brother scored the fight, and he had it a draw (114-114). Another friend of ours scored it — he had it two rounds to Bivol (115-113).
“So, I think it’s just whatever an individual likes. Then I heard this big robbery story about Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano 2. And I judged that again. I’m non-biased to any of the girls. I judged it again, 10-9, and I had Katie Taylor winning it by one point. But again, it’s just different people’s opinions. No two opinions are the same. Everyone has a different opinion of what they believe in, what’s right, what’s wrong, as we know. So it’s difficult. I know a lot of these judges and people involved in boxing get stick for it, because the majority of people see it one way and they see it a different way. It doesn’t mean they’re a bad judge or whatever. It just means they’ve seen it at a different view to how the next man saw it.”
The judging panel for Fury’s rematch with Usyk attracted unwanted attention Thursday and Friday because an experienced, unconflicted judge, New Jersey’s Steve Weisfeld, was named as an 11th-hour replacement for Miami’s Fernando Barbosa, a senior vice president for Disney Latin America and broadcaster for ESPN KnockOut, one of the company’s Spanish-language channels. Barbosa’s appointment by the Middle Eastern Professional Boxing commission caused controversy because Fury’s co-promoter, Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc., has an exclusive content deal to broadcast boxing on ESPN, ESPN+ and ESPN pay-per-view — a Disney subsidiary.
I don’t think there’s really any such things as robberies anymore, because it’s just opinions, isn’t it? It’s just how an individual sees a contest and how they judge it. Sometimes it’s very difficult to score.Tyson Fury
The card headlined by Usyk-Fury 2 will only be available via DAZN pay-per-view, though the perceived conflict of interests was disconcerting, nonetheless. Barbosa reportedly fell ill and was unable to fly from Miami to Riyadh.
“At the end of the day, we’re two professional men, and I’m sure we’re going to get some professional judges and sh*t,” Fury said. “I’m sure they’ll [come to] a good decision. You can’t really do much more than that. Let’s hope they do the right thing. If Usyk wins, give him the fight. If I win, give me the fight. It’s not rocket science, is it?”
It isn’t rocket science, yet it is a very subjective science, a reality the 36-year-old Fury appreciates even more now than when he settled for a 12-round split draw with American rival Deontay Wilder in December 2018 at Staples Center in Los Angeles. Fury got up from two knockdowns during their fight for Wilder’s WBC belt, most notably one that knocked him flat on his back and seemingly out before he somehow reached his feet in the 12th round.
The resilient Fury managed to remain upright when Usyk bombarded him with power punches late in the ninth round back in May, but the ropes held him up, which counted as a knockdown. Referee Mark Nelson never appeared close to stopping the action.
Fury recovered, succeeded in the championship rounds and narrowly lost for the first time in his 16-year pro career.
“The WBC [judge, Metcalfe] had me winning by one round, 114-113,” Fury said. “The IBF [judge, Fitzgerald] had it 114-113 to Usyk. And the WBA [judge, Palomo] had it by two points to Usyk [115-112]. So again, if any one of those judges had a different round a different way … say round two, for instance — the WBC [judge] and the WBA [judge] had me winning it, but the IBF [judge] had Usyk winning it.
“If the IBF [judge] would’ve agreed with the other two, it would’ve been a draw on our scorecards. So, it’s all different. It’s just opinionated, very much opinionated, and then all the views and angles they’ve got, or distractions or whatever going on. But again, I don’t think there’s any such thing as daylight robberies in boxing. I just think it’s how people see it.”
