Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Usyk vs. Tyson Luke Fury & Jai Opetaia vs. Mairis Briedis II - RBR.

Usyk ****ing bossed him, even in the rounds he lost. It was bull and crappy matador, and the little man was the bull.

 

It was actually near 40 lbs weight advantage boss.

The initial misread (233 1/2 lbs) for Usyk is to blame for any confusion.

Ultimately it was 223 1/2 lbs vs 262 lbs. A. 38 1/2 lb weight pull in favour of Fury.

 

Refer to my previous comment.

Your eyes must be painted on.

 

Exactly how I had it, great fight. The knockdown was the difference. Congratulations to Usyk, incredible comeback performance.

My RBR Notes :

Round 1 : 10-9 Usyk (close)
Round 2 : 10-9 Fury (close) Good two punch combo to start from Usyk, and a competitive round throughout, but Fury stepped it up with the cleaner work down the stretch.
Round 3 : 10-9 Fury
Round 4 : 10-9 Fury
Round 5 : 10-9 Fury
Round 6 : 10-9 Fury Good first half of the round from Usyk, landed some decent shots, then Fury took over, dominating the 2nd half of the round, staggering Usyk several times.

Midway Point Observations : One thing I noticed at the halfway point, is that Usyk's head movement is ineffective, while Fury's head movement is causing Usyk to miss. Fury's Ring IQ is far superior than Usyk at this stage, Usyk who boxes in a predictable rhythm, Fury is unpredictable and is constantly keeping Usyk off balance, setting traps as he goes, even whilst clowning around. All the clowning isn't just for show, it's quite effective from Fury particularly the back to the turnbuckle, hands out approach, each time it has baited Usyk in and Fury capitalizes on effective one-twos.

Round 7 : 10-9 Usyk (close) Fury was having his way with Usyk for most of the round, but an incredible series of punches landed by Usyk in the final 30 seconds won him the round.
Round 8 : 10-9 Usyk A Great round, Fury landed some good jabs and flashy shots, but Usyk took over the round in the final minute, bloodying Fury up. Usyk has the momentum now.
Round 9 : 10-8 Usyk, back and forth round until the final 30 seconds, Usyk all over Fury, ropes held him up, count given.
Round 10 : 10-9 Usyk (close)
Round 11 : 10-9 Usyk (close) Good bounce back round for Fury, but it was kept too close, and Usyk nicked it right at the end.
Round 12 : 10-9 Fury (close) Good back and forth round, great shots landed by both fighters, but Fury for me did just enough to edge it with some flashy hooks and jabs.

114-113 Usyk

Usyk turned this match completely around starting in Round 7. Fury was on his way to cruising to victory at the midway point, but Usyk stepped it up and started landing the more effective shots on Fury. Usyk had more in the gas tank and was more composed down the stretch.

As to the knockdown in Round 9, to those who said it should have been stopped, that's a bit much. It was perfect refereeing in my view. He stepped in to rule it a knockdown as Fury crashed into the turnbuckle. The body language there was enough to justify a count there. But there was no grounds for the match to be waived off at that point. It would have been a horrible stoppage had it been stopped. What I would say though is that had the ref not stepped in when he did to give a count, Fury may have been one punch away from hitting the canvas.

Usyk won this fight by how he took over the end of rounds 7-11. Each of those rounds were on the table heading into the final minute, in some cases the final 30 seconds. And had Fury won any one of those rounds, he wins the decision. But Usyk in each of those rounds, finished the round strong, rounds that were right there for the taking.

It's yet another reminder of how important it is to assert yourself in the final minute, or in the final 30 seconds, when a round is on the table, the fighter who wanted it more at the end of the crucial rounds was Usyk. He won, and deservedly so, in epic fashion!!

 

It makes it even more impressive when you compare that to Ryan Garcia beating Haney who had to come in over weight and use that to his advantage to win. Thinking about it now it does seem pretty comical that Haney has been complaining about the 3 pound difference and yet here you see an even more undersized fighter who managed to defeat and almost knocking out a much bigger opponent. Really says a lot about the differences in level.

 

4500 replies @IntentionalButt This has to be the biggest RBR in the history of ESB, right?

 

I spit my drink out laughing today when the announcer today said after the interview: "Ryan Garcia still waiting on the B-side sample..."

 

To be fair, Joshua beat Robert Helenius and Francis Ngannou. That more than makes up for his two losses to Usyk. Horrible, just horrible.

 

2 wasn't clear for Fury, it was a good round for Usyk, but Fury edged it imho with his work down the stretch. 3 was also close, but not as close as 2 iirc. 1 was close, also, but I don't think it was as close as 2. Anotherwords, I thought Usyk had a better argument for winning round 2 than Fury did for round 1. But both were very close. 10 was close as well, close but clear for Usyk imho. In both rounds 10 and 11, Fury gave himself a chance to win each round, and heading into the final minute, both of those rounds were on the table, but in each of those rounds Usyk landed the better shots near the end and took both those rounds for me by how he finished them. The difference with round 12, another close round is that Usyk didn't finish Round 12 as strong as he did Rounds 10 and 11, which allowed Fury to edge round 12 for me.

Fury tried to rally in rounds 10-12. And to an extent he did, he showed tremendous heart to come back from the barrage at the end of round 9. But Usyk was just too much down the stretch of rounds 10 and 11, and it won him the fight.

 

That was the correct score.

It can be proven to be mathematically correct.

We need ChinaHandJoe to come back and show the graphs.

 

Yes.

I think you are dealing with a hater there.

 

No, Fury was well ahead at the midway point. Frankly Fury was having his way with Usyk in rounds 3-6. 3 was close but you could tell that Fury was starting to confuse and befuddle Usyk. Rounds 4-6 were not particularly close, and it looked as though Usyk had no answers for Fury's enigmatic unpredictable style at that point. And even to start Round 7, Fury once again appeared to be well on his way to winning yet another round, but Usyk changed the fight in Round 7. It was a massive turnaround from Usyk. Of course you're gonna get some Usyk fan scorers giving Usyk rounds 1-3, and just scoring anything remotely close to Usyk, and then claiming this should have been a wide victory for Usyk. We've seen this sort of thing before, when fans of certain fighters just score every remotely close round to the fighter they like, then cry bloody murder at close judges cards.

But, no any unbiased scorer could see Fury was well ahead at the mid way point and Usyk needed to turn the fight around. He did, I don't think you can say that Usyk won it comfortably, but what I would say is Usyk made it clear that he had the momentum after Round 9. And heading into the 12th round, it seemed pretty apparent to me that Usyk was going to win. I said to myself, even if Fury manages to win the 12th, Usyk should still be ahead due to how many rounds he won in a row, plus the extra point in the 9th. And that turned out to be the case. But lets face it, almost every round Usyk won, he won then based on what he did in the last 30 seconds to a minute of each of those round. Whereas some of the rounds Fury won (4-6) were far more convincing (start to finish) than any of the rounds Usyk won.

And for what it's worth, the compubox numbers were very even. Usyk had a slight advantage in landed punches, and had a higher %, but the number of landed punches were very close, which speaks to how close it was. Further, Fury landed a lot of eye catching flashy punches, and was far more of a showman than Usyk. Usyk was more business like, as to be expected, and he pushed the pace in the 2nd half of the fight. So Usyk for me definitely deserved victory based on what he did in rounds 7-11, but he needed to win 5 of the last 6 rounds to win the fight, and he did just that. Not only did he won 5 of the last 6 rounds, but he won all 5 of those rounds based on what he did in the final minute of each of those rounds.

So fair play to Usyk, he won the match in thrilling fashion, but to reduce the match to describe it as a comfortable Usyk win, I think you're sort of underselling how thrilling and dramatic it actually was. Usyk was seriously in it deep at the midway point, but he rallied in comeback fashion to win.

 

After round 7, I had Fury ahead for the first time.

And because of the momentum thing, I was thinking that Fury might just be too big for the Ukrainian.

At the end of round 7, I was very dubious of Usyk winning.


Then came round 8 !

And then. round 9 !!!


After that, it was just a question of whether or not the judges were fair.


Turns out they weren't , but at least they got the result right.

 

You were being too generous.

 

Defendible ?

That Canadian judge should be shot and pissed on.

Like some here on ESB who scored this for Fury, the dude DKSAB.