Repeat or Revenge? Tyson Fury wants to recapture his lost heavyweight crown from Oleksandr Usyk with all his might. He intends to do so with a lot of offense and “old school” style. In BOXSPORT, expert Sükrü Aksu assesses the Brit’s full-throttle plans.
History does not repeat itself. Or does it? Well, somehow the phrase is like any saying. You use it or bend it to suit your needs. At any rate, Tyson Fury is currently making every effort to draw on suitable chapters of his recent boxing history to encourage himself and his supporters – so that history does not repeat itself against Oleksandr Usyk on December 21 in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) in the rematch between the heavyweight rivals.
Tyson Fury: “In destruction mode”
“Whoever I had in front of me more than once, I knocked them out in the rematch,” said Fury at the press conference with Usyk in London on October 23. In the weeks leading up to the rematch, the 36-year-old had already verbally hit the ground running and predicted a major triumph at the end of the year. “I will go in there in destruction mode. Last time I boxed him, I was careful. This time I’m not looking to score,” Fury said in an interview with “TNT Sports”, adding: “I’m going to knock this motherf***er out.”
On Instagram, Fury hinted at a battle plan for his mission to reclaim the heavyweight crown from Usyk (“He took my virginity”). “I was in the shape of my life,” the chatterbox wrote on a photo showing him before the first fight on May 18 against the Ukrainian – muscular and well-trained. “But that’s not the GK (Gypsy King; editor’s note),” he added and posted a picture of his third fight against Deontay Wilder in autumn 2021. “That’s him: 19 stone, eleven pounds (the British unit of weight).
“Brummer” is the ideal type of gypsy king
A hulk,” is how Fury described the ideal type of “Gypsy King”. Subtext: The 2.06-meter giant, who weighed 118 kilograms against Usyk, wants to “bulk up” for the rematch – and roll over the Ukrainian with all his mass. Just as Fury did in his fights in Las Vegas against the feared knockout artist Wilder. Particularly in the second part of the trilogy, the Briton marched forwards incessantly from the first bell, literally flattening Wilder with all his 125 kilograms in seven rounds.
More kilos, more offense, more oomph, less technical boxing. Is that the right “game plan” against Usyk, the master technician? Basically yes, says trainer Sükrü Aksu. “When Fury is heavy, he has more power. He also lacked power against Usyk in the first fight,” analyzes the “Chief Second” of Germany’s heavyweight ace Agit Kabayel in an interview with BOXSPORT: “How did he beat Wilder? He held him down, pushed him down, exhausted him. Wilder even went down after a body shot. And then Fury beat him up like he wanted to. The way he fought Wilder, he has to fight Usyk.”
“Dirty” to victory?
However, Usyk is “in a completely different league” to Wilder, Aksu points out. “He has an eye, he’s not a one-punch artist – he boxes properly.” In addition, Fury will have to slow down his pace if he really does put on a few pounds. “Otherwise he won’t be able to cope with this weight at the back,” says the BOXSPORT expert. The Brit had already “degraded” in the last rounds of the first round. Fury can only beat Usyk if he fights “dirty” and “uses his weight properly”, emphasizes Aksu. That sounds very much like the old Kronk school of trainer icon Emanuel Steward, who died in 2012, which his nephew Sugar Hill had also taught Fury for his battles against Wilder and which Lennox Lewis and Wladimir Klitschko had already successfully gone through.
“Hold on and press down,” recommends Sükrü Aksu
“Hold on and press down. Wladimir won most of his fights like that. He lay on top until his opponents ran out of energy at some point, then he hit them and they were gone,” says Aksu, recalling the younger Klitschko’s reign. “If Fury takes him on from the start and exhausts him, he has a chance,” says the successful coach, who was live ringside at the May spectacle in Riyadh: “He should have wrestled him right there and put his weight on him to crush him. Fury can do it all: clinch, push him down. I was expecting that, but he didn’t do that and it cost him the win.”
If the former world champion also tries to “box along” in the rematch, Usyk “will always hit him well. He is quicker on his feet. Then Fury has no chance and will lose again”. The 37-year-old defending champion is an incredibly intelligent boxer, according to Aksu. “Oleksandr Usyk always moves away from the punching hand, boxes sideways, never stands straight in front of you. That’s why Anthony Joshua had so many problems. And: Usyk goes in from the outside. That’s how he almost knocked Fury out in the ninth round. He’s a real expert.”
Points deduction decided the first duel
However, the multi-faceted Fury backed away from his full-throttle plans on the sidelines of the London press conference. “I’m not going to do anything different (from the first fight; editor’s note),” announced the two-time heavyweight world champion: “The only thing I’m going to change is not getting counted out standing in round nine. Otherwise I would have won clearly.” The first fight against Usyk “could have gone either way”, said Fury, recapitulating his narrow defeat via split decision in the Kingdom Arena.
In fact, the man from Morecambe would have come away with a draw had it not been for the standing eight count by referee Mark Nelson. Judge Mike Fitzgerald (USA) saw Usyk ahead 114:113 after twelve rounds. Without the point deduction in round nine, Fitzgerald’s scorecard would have read 114:114 (6:6 rounds). With Craig Metcalfe (Canada), the Brit was ahead by one point anyway, while Manuel Oliver Palomo scored it 115:112 in Usyk’s favor.
More focus on the job
Because he had lost so narrowly, he did not have to change his fighting style in principle for the rematch, said Fury. He would just have to be “a little more focused” at the end of December. He is a “very educated heavyweight boxer” and will not put his fists up like Anthony Joshua or Daniel Dubois and march towards Usyk. “My style is all about skill, moving, swinging punches and bringing the jab. All I have to do to win the rematch is make small adjustments. That means not messing around so much with my hands behind my back. More focus on my job. Just a more serious version of what I’ve been doing.”
Tyson Fury: “I was fooling around too much”
He had pulled off a lot of show acts in the ring in the first fight, “more than I’ve ever done, and against probably my toughest opponent,” said the Gypsy King self-critically on ESPN. “I was clowning around a lot and that cost me in the end,” he alluded to his clowning around between the ropes. If the clowning around against an indisposed Wladimir Klitschko went well in the past, the non-stop pressure from Usyk was ice-cold in Riyadh. When Fury felt too confident in the ninth round and tried to show the Ukrainian up with a combination to the head, Usyk’s left jab hit the giant’s head with devastating effect and shook his nervous system.
So will Tyson Fury present the boxing world with a completely focused Gypsy King on December 21, without any fuss or fanfare? In a way, it would be a first. “But Fury is that kind of guy – he’s always good for a surprise, so you never know where you stand,” says Sükrü Aksu. The fistfight’s Christmas Eve can come.
Text: Martin Armbrüster
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