What was Fury doing that made Usyk struggle so much during the mid rounds of the first fight?

Being 6' 9"

 

Fury was moving pretty well and had that sneaky right uppercut going. But Usyk like always adjusted to that and started out hustling Fury and got his rhythm going and took over.

A couple of those Uppercuts Fury landed were basically the same shot that put Whyte’s lights out. Usyk just has an iron chin.

 

Boxing. The only way you'll beat Usyk is by trying to outbox him, because walking him down will only result in eating punches and gassing out.

 

Body shots. If he had focused on the slats the second time around he would have won.

 

Fury was boxing very well and moving very well. Eventually Usyk figured out where Fury's punches were coming from and countered them effectively. Uysks non stop attack caused lots of problems for Fury like it does for everyone else.

 

This. Usyk doesn’t like them to the body and no fighter does. Dubois’ gameplan was so naive, I think he only landed one body shot in the rematch that Usyk visibly winced at.

Also Fury is just generally awkward. His flick jab and herky jerky movement will give anyone fits, just look at how hopeless Wlad was against him.

 

Not to take credit away from Fury because he was doing some nice things during those mid rounds but, just imo, Usyk also hit his own personal mini wall.

He started very fast by his own standard and was landing flat footed, well leveraged powers shots in the opening 4 rounds. A lot of effort put into those opening rounds.

He then he came out (round 5?)with a notable drop in output and whatever mobility he had displayed in the earlier rounds.

A breather of sorts but one that made him that much more vulnerable to Fury who took the opportunity to step up his own offence.

Usyk recovered himself part way through round 7 as I recall and got back onto the job - capitalising on his early rounds investment which had taken its due toll on Fury also.

 

Leading with the uppercut which is technically incorrect but which can work brilliantly when the opponent doesn't expect it.

Stepping up his offense right as Usyk was tired from expending so much energy in the first few rounds.

 

Yet that statistic is constantly disputed.

 

Agreed with most of the sentiments here. Also think Usyk walking into range with the high guard rounds 4-6 were part of the plan to keep Fury punching and gas him out. Obviously it wasn’t in the plan to be hit by the uppercut, but there was much made by Usyk’s team about taking Fury to deep waters and drowning him.

 

Usyk does have a great chin but he didn't want to go eating too many more good shots during rounds 5, 6 and 7 or it could have ended very differently. That one particular uppercut Fury landed really shook the foundations. Usyk said so afterwards. It would have finished most other opponents.

 

I am not going to sit here and say that I wasn't nervous, but remember that Usyk often does some variation of this. It is often asked why he lost rounds to Hunter, Chisora and Bellew, and the answer is that he is content to let his opponent expend energy while he makes his adjustments.

But yeah, Fury had a hell of a three rounds, there.

 

Say what you want about Fury but he is a highly skilled big man with great boxing IQ and when he is switched on he is dangerous. He was switched on for the first fight with Usyk and showed his greatness he was just in there with a phenom who is arguably the GOAT. I think it really grinds Fury’s gears because without Usyk around he would’ve been regarded as the best from this generation.

 

This is what I think too, he doesn’t take rounds off he lets his opponents have a few rounds on, this shows how comfortable he is, he knows fine well that no fighter can hang with him in the later rounds, I don’t think that was the case with chisora though, he was new to the weight and he never fought a fighter like chisora that is happy to just eat shots like that, chisora is a rare breed, who else is mad enough to back up on the ropes and go blow for blow, he forces other fighters to get into it with him because what else can you do with a mad man like that. It was a genius move to lose your heavyweight virginity to Chisora, the toughest and roughest in the division, and it served him well. For me Parker is the hardest fight for usyk Parker won’t win but he will have the stamina and jaw to stay in there and see the fight out. Ituma might beat him because I think the only way to beat him is to beat him to the punch and be accurate with the shots. I don’t think usyk wants ituma, why would he it’s risk v reward and the big money is with fury unfortunately