Tyson Fury promises less clowning, more punches in Usyk rematch

Fury

Tyson Fury admits he was too loose during his undisputed heavyweight title fight against Oleksandr Usyk in May.

“The Gypsy King” started strong but faded late, suffering a ninth-round knockdown and a split-decision loss to the Ukrainian. During the seesaw slugfest, Fury was seen horsing around several times in between the exchanges.

Fury, 34-1-1 (24 KOs), is promising less tomfoolery against the 22-0 (14 KOs) Usyk for the sequel in Saudi Arabia on December 21.

“I’ll just throw more this time,” Fury said Wednesday, per the Associated Press. “Keep hitting him in the face more often than I did last time.

“I’m just going to box smart, box clever and if I catch him, get him out of there. Pretty similar to what I did last time. A little bit less clowning around and a bit more focus and that’s it, really.

“I did more clowning than anybody in any high-level fight’s ever done. It’s taken my focus away as well, so maybe a little less clowning and more focus on the actual victory. I was messing around too much in there.”

The 6ft 9ins Fury will also need to channel the same energy he brought into his rematches against Deontay Wilder in 2020 and 2021 following a 2018 draw in which he was dropped twice by the American knockout artist. Fury came back to stop Wilder in the second and third fights. Against Usyk, Fury also did not properly leverage the six inches and nearly 40lbs he had over the smaller Usyk.

“It wasn’t so much what he did right,” Fury said. “It was me more fatigued than anything else, getting lackadaisical, you know what I mean? Throwing punches while I wasn’t thinking about what I was doing. It wasn’t for what he did was so great, it’s what I did that was a mistake really. And that’s it.

“I’m not the same guy I was at 21 or 22, but who is at that age? No one is, I suppose. Muhammad Ali wasn’t. Joe Frazier, Mike Tyson definitely wasn’t. Nobody is. Who is the same man they are at 36 as they were at 26? Nobody really. So yeah, all of those fights have a big effect on human beings.

“I remember when I was a young guy in my 20s and I said to Wladimir Klitschko, ‘Look at you, you’re an old man.’ He was 37. I said, ‘You’re old.’ I said, ‘You’ve got gray hairs in your beard.’ I said, ‘It’s a young man’s game,’ Now I’m in that position, I’m in that boat.

“Sometimes when fighters lose a fight, they can never win another one when that bubble’s been burst. They’re never the same. I’ve seen it many times.”

Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer and broadcast reporter whose work has appeared on ESPN, Fox Sports, USA Today, The Guardian, Newsweek, Men’s Health, NFL.com, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Ring Magazine and more. He has been writing for BoxingScene since 2018.