Tyson Fury is downplaying being hurt by a big shot from Oleksandr Usyk in the ninth round of their previous fight on May 18th.
The former WBC heavyweight champion Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs), who many believe can no longer take a punch, dismisses the idea that he has a glass chin, saying that he could have been hit with the same punch from Usyk a “million times” and it wouldn’t have done anything. We know otherwise.
The Price of War
Deontay Wilder may have permanently ruined Fury from his three fights with him, dropping him four times and getting robbed of two knockout wins. The Gyspy King came out of those three fights like a broken soldier, dragging himself off the battlefield, damaged physically beyond fixing by any doctor. When Fury gets hit hard, he can’t handle it any longer.
That’s so obvious now. He was smart to choose Derek Chisora and Dillian Whyte as his opponents after his third fight with Wilder in 2021. Those two domestic-level heavyweights lacked the talent to show that their punch resistance had deteriorated.
When he fought Usyk, he was exposed. Fury is not the same fighter anymore, and he won’t last long in the rematch with Usyk unless the referee runs interference for him. If you’re Turki Alalshikh, it would be a good idea to start planning for another heavyweight to match against Anthony Joshua in 2025, but it would be a joke if Fury is still used with him coming off two consecutive defeats.
As we all witnessed last May. The referee saved Fury from being knocked out in the ninth round when he shoved Usyk out of the way just when he was about to finish Tyson with the coup de grace punch that would have sent him hurtling at light speed to the HD1 galaxy. That would have been it for Fury. Usyk is going to finish the job this time and not allow the referee to prevent what should have been done the first time.
“He could have punched me with that punch a million times, and it may not have had any effect, but he punched me, and it had an effect, and that was great for him,” Tyson Fury said to DAZN, making light of Oleksandr Usyk hurting him last May.
“It was perfect,” said Usyk about the punch that he hurt Fury with.
A Changed Fighter
Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) will test Fury’s chin again in 16 days on December 21st in their rematch at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh. Many believe that the unified heavyweight champion Usyk will be going after Fury from the opening bell, loading up on left hands, looking to knock him out.
Fury looked like a physical wreck during his Face Off with Usyk on DAZN. I was trying to understand how this was the same fighter that had beaten Wladimir Klitschko nine years earlier in 2015 in Germany. Fury looks like he’s been put in some kind of aging chamber that has accelerated his life. He does NOT look well.
