The alleged expense of any clowning by Fury is vastly overrated imo. In fact, any of his clowning wasn’t at the expense of him doing anything better than he did. He simply clowns as a sidebar - and he also clowns to misdirect from tough periods during a fight, when he actually doesn’t have control and cannot do anything about it otherwise. False implications. He smiled on several occasions after Usyk connected solidly. The smile quickly left his face though. He was getting hurt. See later career Ali for an example of same.
I agree. He has the greatest potential to rationalise retirement given his excellent balance outside the ring - a very human, socially aware guy with a beautiful wife and 3 children. He owes nothing and has nothing further to prove. I guess it comes down to whether his love of boxing is still sufficiently strong as to be a necessary supplementary balance in life.
I'm going to debunk your argument here that Fury clowning was just for show. Here are two examples of Fury's clowning leading to significant landed punches. Round 4 : Exhibit A : This content is protected (timestamped) 30:37 in video Fury putting his arms down, leaning his head in to bait Usyk to step forward, then lands a straight right hand, catching Usyk squarely on the nose. "Yeah he's really in his groove now." Exhibit B: This content is protected (timestamped) 38:58 in video Fury back to the turnbuckle, first picks off Usyk attempts at body punching with his gloves, then starts clowning him, puts his gloves on the ropes and starts bobbing and weaving from side to side, which baits Usyk to step in, then clips him with a lead right hook to the side of the head. Those two instances disprove your argument that the clowning was all for show. No, the clowning led to Fury landing effective shots, some of the best shots in the round. And all this clowning wasn't lost on the commentary team. Mannix at 31:18 says : "Have you ever seen Fury glowing around this much even against lesser opposition?" "Not as consistently as he is, not in this round" So Fury was clearly clowning Usyk, and landing significant punches as a result of the clowning.
Usyk is definitely better at in-fight adjustments. Fury has initiative in preparation because he can switch up his styles a lot more than Usyk. Think Fury will come out strong in the rematch and it's up to Usyk and his team to adjust.
So, from your perspective - Fury was advantaged by the clowning - so clowning was beneficial to him - not detrimental? What ever I say otherwise, that’s your position. As to what I have to say otherwise, no, those two instances do not disprove or debunk my argument at all. Usyk landed very good body shots after which Fury then held onto the ropes (illegal move, actually) to play off and misdirect from Usyk’s obvious successes. Usyk wasn’t lured at all - he was fatigued at that point but simply continued to fight his fight - Fury’s antics were ignored - Usyk was the aggressor and on the front foot already, accepting some inherent risk in order to land on Fury - and land he did. The commentary team? lol. They made the comment re Fury’s isolated moment of clowning ONLY after a sustained period that followed when Fury was clearly not clowning but, rather, getting moved around and getting hit good by Usyk. Either way, to be very clear, your take or my take, Fury’s clowning didn’t take from his performance.
i noticed throughout the first half of the fight that usyk kept taunting fury. waving him in to come get it. its subtle, but if you know what that looks like when its in front of you, you see it. little twist of the gloves. a little bit of dick measuring between fighters. usyk wanted him throwing. whether its to try and catch him in an exchange, as he has faster, shorter arms, that can generate more torque in tighter spaces. or he wanted him to keep his activity high depends on what else you see. what i saw was usyk fighting the first couple of rds with enough movement to avoid catching something unexpected, but pushing enough to taste how much power he was up against. then he settled into a measured pursuit that consisted of pressuring enough to force constant focus. wear him down mentally and physically. he often just stood his ground when fury unloaded, covering up and blocking, when he could easily use his feet to step out of range. the only thing that didnt make sense, or that i didnt anticipate, was usyk losing some stamina. his system got taxed for a spell. could have been those heavy body shots usyk decided to take on the arms, but somehow got through. or could be usyk showing his age more distinctly.
They were mostly picked off by Fury's gloves. The first jab coming in catches fury, and one of Usyk's body shots appear to get through, but the rest were blocked or avoided. The clowning by Fury in Round 4 clearly led to significant right hands landed by Fury. Usyk was absolutely lured in by those tactics and it resulted in him getting caught with clean hard eye catching shots. And if there was any doubt about who won round 4, look at how the round ended : 31:38 jab by Fury through the guard, connects to Usyk's forehead in between Usyk's gloves 31:39 counter jab by Usyk short Then Usyk attempts a left hand, Fury steps back, avoids the shot and counters with a beautiful right uppercut that lands right across Usyk's face 31:42 Fury lands a hard clean jab 31:43 A light jab from Usyk grazes Fury's shoulder Fury counters with an uppercut (looks to be just short, may have grazed him) Usyk counters with a wild left hook, misses wildly. Fury steps back, smiling and just moves away as the bell rings. That's how the round ended, after all the significant shots I time stamped, Fury ends the round strong with eye catching impactful shots, while Usyk's punches in that sequence either missed or barely landed.
Yeah, I think the body shots would’ve taken their due measure, as body shots naturally do - but with all the accent on Fury’s perceived deteriorations - Usyk’s own deteriorations have been over sighted. A great engine like the one he has displayed previously only has one way to go - down. He’s definitely slowed as compared to his prime self. I also think his greater accent on aggression and landing meaningful shots early also likely took more out of him than usual.
No. I obviously disagree and have already detailed my own observations in direct address of your own. Usyk was still, clearly landing. They weren’t mostly picked off by Fury’s gloves - Did you also notice that Usyk was fatigued within himself - and did you pick up on Fury’s obvious shot on Usyk’s belt line? It wasn’t the only one. Or the holding and holding and hitting - including holding the back of Usyk’s head when he landed the uppercut? I highlighted that the commentary teams observation that you chose to invoke was completely misaligned with the action that was going down in front of them. Basically, they were talking **** instead of calling the action in front of them. And, to repeat, the primary point was that Fury’s clowning didn’t compromise Fury’s performance - and notwithstanding your own “workings” - you clearly AGREE with me on that conclusion.
Timestamp? Timestamps? What? When Mannix said at 31:18 : "Have you ever seen Fury clowning around this much even against lesser opposition?" "Not as consistently as he is, not in this round" That was 14 seconds after the turnbuckle clowning and the straight right hand landed by Fury. 30 seconds before that was the other example of Fury clowning and landing another right hand. Hands down leaning forward, Usyk comes in, then bang. There was a lot of clowning in that round by Fury, with the way he was moving, feinting, circling his right glove like he was about to throw it, etc. All these antics were confusing Usyk and causing him to get tagged and out pointed. Well, the clowning was effective in the first half of the fight, but it also caused Fury to get too comfortable with it thinking he could just clown around all fight, and he ended up getting caught and hurt late. Not that he was clowning in rounds 7-11 to the extent he was in 1-6, but what happened when you are as effective whilst clowning as he was early in the fight, is it caused him to get overconfident and more lazy as fatigue started to set in in the later rounds. What I disagree with you with was when you said : "He simply clowns as a sidebar - and he also clowns to misdirect from tough periods during a fight, when he actually doesn’t have control and cannot do anything about it otherwise." He wasn't clowning as a sidebar, or "just for show", it was part of an effective strategy early on in the match to lure Usyk in, to set traps and make him pay, which worked. There weren't really any tough periods for Fury early in the fight when he was clowning, he appeared to be well on his way to winning the fight easily at the mid-way point. When Fury was clowning Usyk in rounds 1-6, it was because of how much control he was in, it was to stay in control, rather than regain control as you were arguing. The tough periods for Fury started at the end of round 7, and in rounds 8-11, by that point he wasn't clowning anymore he was just tired and his concentration/defense was not what it was early in the match, largely because of how easily he was seemingly having his way with Usyk in 1-6 and most of 7.
Dr Feel gets Fury out of there this time. I’d say by the 8th round. Look for Usyk to really focus on that straight left to Fury’s body early. That started opening a lot of doors for him.
This content is protected Didn't i told you ? There was a zero chance of the serial ducker to fight again in October and get his head scrambled once again in such a short period. It's time for Usyk team to stop being allowed to be bullied and told what to do. They are the MAN in the division, and should force Fury, October or not fight at all. The rematch contract has a specific date. If Fury team can't match it, tell them to f*** off. That rematch does nothing for Usyk career anyway. They try to age Usyk a bit more, as he wasn't already old enough obviously. January he will be 38, that's why they will want the fight to be next year. Just pathetic.
Agreed. If there was any doubt in the dubois vs Usyk fight, Usyk dominated the rest of the fight. Even if it wasn't a low blow, Dubois basically won a 1/20 punchers chance victory and Usyk would have cooked in the rematch. And if there was even more doubt. Usyk dominated AJ and KO'd Fury, so we all know Usyk is #1.
