For the first time, I attended a major sports event like this and flew to Riyadh. Just back at my hotel. It was fantastic atmosphere, with a massive pro-Usyk majority in the crowd, overpowering in 'rooting' the Fury camp. This meant in the arena the even missed Usyk punches triggered massive rounds of applause while a few Fury bombs went a bit unnoticed. I have tried my best to exclude this from my scoring. Overall, my perception, and the perception of those sitting around me, was that there was a momentum in the fight, culminating in the 5th round, where Fury seemed to have found the rhythm and the recipe. Then from the 6th he massively slowed down and Usyk turned on the usual heat. With these points, here are my scores with some comments: Round 1: 10-9 Usyk. Very difficult round to score, ring generalship and a bit more aggression sways it to Usyk, but arguably. Round 2: 9-10 Fury, established jab. Round 3: 9-10 Fury, this one clear to my mind. Round 4: 10-9 Usyk, flurries, cleaner shots but another close round. Round 5: 9-10 Fury, best round for Fury. At this point in the fight, one could make a case that the he won 3-4 of the first 5. Round 6: 10-10 Even. There was one clean shot at the end which may have swayed it for Usyk, but I could not make up my mind about this. Round 7: 10-9 Usyk starts turning on the heat. Round 8: 10-9 Usyk Round 9: 10-9 Usyk Round 10: 9-10 Fury, but arguable, close round. Round 11: 10-9 Usyk Round 12: 10-9 Usyk This yields 116-113 for Fury. I feel, more than with their first fight, that this was a fight that was in Fury's hands at a certain point and it was his decision to give space to Usyk that cost him the trajectory to winning it.
Amazing Usyk was able to land so many good shots to the body when he only had a few inches of target This is flagrant cheating but did any of the commentators mention it? We could all see it as clear as day but no one mentioned it. The ref saw it too so why didn't he instruct Belly to pull them down? This content is protected This content is protected
I scored it 117-111 for Usyk. But since there were a couple of close rounds, 118-110 or 116-112 are also good scorecards. I was expecting a robbery, but the judges got it right! Props to the fair and objective judges - Ignacio Robles, Gerardo Martinez and Patrick Morley - they are better at their jobs than the well-known dodgy ones like Craig Metcalfe and Glen Feldman.
115-113 Usyk. However, this was a fight with LOTS of close rounds that could be scored either way. As I see it, anything from 117-111 to a 114-114 Draw is defensible. Outside of that, it would seem to me that some kind of bias is entering into the judgment. That is the case, imo, with those asserting Fury won.
I had it by a round or two for Usyk. What I can't explain is Fury's delusion. After the fight he claimed "I was on me front foot all night" and "I don't have a mark on me". From what I saw, Usyk frequently had him on his back foot and a mirror would show him there are indeed a few marks on him. He is like Joshua. "I am bigger, stronger and did my best for twelve rounds without getting hurt so I should have won".
Anywhere from 116-112 to 118-110 is how I see it. I gave Usyk the close rounds because he was busier and pushing Fury back. Could I have given some close rounds to Fury? Maybe, but I have a hard time giving Fury more than 4 rounds. This was a clear Usyk win. He was busier, he landed more and he's just the better fighter.