What Tyson Fury’s corner told him before final round vs Oleksandr Usyk speaks volumes after his post-fight comments
Tyson Fury thought he had beaten Oleksandr Usyk but the Ukrainian prevailed in their second bout, winning by unanimous decision.
The advice from Tyson Fury’s corner ahead of the final round in his fight with Oleksandr Usyk has emerged after the Gypsy King claimed he won the rematch in Saudi Arabia.
Though Fury improved from the first fight where he lost his WBC world heavyweight title in the unification encounter in May, judges Gerardo Martinez, Patrick Morley and Ignacio Robles all scored the second tear-up 116-112 in Usyk’s favour.
Fury’s promoter Frank Warren said he was left “dumbfounded” after his fighter was given just four rounds by each judge, with Fury even raising his hand as the legendary Michael Buffer read out the verdict.
Fury was later quoted as saying that he thought he won by “three rounds” and had been “Larry Holmesed again”. He did concede that such a result is always possible if a knockout is not secured and his team were well aware going into the 12th round.
Unlike the first fight, John Fury was nowhere to be seen in the corner this time around but trainers SugarHill Steward and Andy Lee were there to provide plenty of directive.
“You’ve got to take it now,” Steward told Fury, as reported by The Sun.
“You’ve got to take it now. There ain’t no tomorrow, you hear me? It’s now.
‘The fight is too fing close, you need to take this mother fer. You’ve got to keep your legs f***ng moving.
“Keep your god-damn hands up and give it everything you’ve got Tyson, you hear that? You’ve got to take it, don’t get stupid, but you’ve got to take it.”
Fury’s second cousin Lee, a former world champion at middleweight, simply added: “Don’t be desperate, be smart.”
On the scorecards, only Martinez from Puerto Rico gave Fury the final round.
Usyk had the much better output in the fight, comfortably outlanding Fury in the punch stats. Although Fury threw more hits with 509 to Usyk’s 423, it was the Ukrainian who landed more with 179 compared to 144 from Fury – giving him a 42 percent success rate.
Asked about the scorecards in the ring, Usyk said: “I win. It’s good. I win. Thank you god.”
Both fighters will be planning to anyway after a hard-fought camp and fight, but it is mandatory that each boxer rests for for three days for every round fought.
With the close fight going the full 12 rounds, Fury and Usyk are now required to rest up for least 24 days before they can return to action.
