Tonight brings us the highly anticipated rematch between the 2 best Heavyweights on the planet in a fight that is too close to call, but I will dissect and give my opinion on how it could turn out….
Going back to the first fight 7 months ago, Fury may have won the fight in his head after 5 or 6 rounds as he cruised and was a mixture of both Fury showboating and Usyk’s ability to adapt in a fight the undoing of Fury on this occasion.
Ultimately, the decisive moment in that fight was the 9th round, which Usyk dominated and led to a 10 – 8 round in favor of Usyk. If this round had been 10 – 9 for Usyk, the fight would have ended in a majority draw. It always comes down to fine margins at the pinnacle of any sport and I believe Fury can adjust and correct the mistakes to get the job done tonight.
Make no mistake, Usyk is a generational great and is the only fighter not phased by any of Fury’s mind games, resulting in a more focused and colder version of Fury this time around. All the games are over and this is a very different Tyson Fury.
There’s no doubt that Fury has a good boxing IQ, as does Usyk, but in terms of rematches, then I’m swinging heavily at Fury making the necessary adjustments to come back and improve more than Usyk. 2 notable rematches that saw a massive improvement, with the first being back in 2009 against John Mcdermott where Fury won a razor thin decision, and many thought he could have lost.
In the rematch that was not instant, but 3 fights and 9 months later, Fury won with a convincing 9th round stoppage. The more notable rematch was the 2nd fight with Wilder. The first fight saw a vulnerable Fury recover from a 12th round knockout which resulted in a draw and like the Mcdermott rematch, Fury would later rematch with Wilder 3 fights. The 2nd fight with Wilder ended with Fury wiping him out with a 7th round stoppage.
This rematch is different for several reasons. Usyk is head and shoulders above both Mcdermott and Wilder. This is an immediate rematch and both fighters are likely past their prime and reaching the end of their careers. However, make no mistake about it, as many of the great heavyweight wars, including The Thrilla in Manilla in 1975 between Ali v Frazier in their trilogy, had both fighters past their prime and at the end of their careers, they did not had an impact on becoming one of the biggest matches in heavyweight history and I think this one can live up to expectations as well.
If Usyk were to win, then I think it might be the last time we see both fighters back in the ring more than either can do. Fury would lose back to back, Usyk was unified champion in 2 weight divisions and had already beaten 2 of the top contenders including current IBF world champion Daniel Dubois and former world champion Anthony Joshua.
A Fury win would open up the division for either a trilogy with Usyk, a massive fight with Anthony Joshua or another unification fight with the winner of Dubois V Parker, although if Parker wins it’s a different story, as Parker and Fury are very close but the point remains that a Fury win will generate more money than a Usyk win and that is a fact.
How this game can be won is again very hard to say and a very interesting statistic jumps out for me. Usyk has never been officially knocked down in his professional career to date, but he was knocked out by unified Light Heavyweight World Champion Artur Beterbiev via a brutal body shot back in the amateurs in 2011. This knockdown was in the last round and the other interesting statistic is that Fury won by KO in every round except round 12.
My prediction is a 12th round stoppage for Fury as this stat just screams to me and I think Fury will want to leave it all in the ring this time.
I can see it going to points but I want to make a bold prediction and will put a few quid on Fury against the 12th round KO.
What do the readers predict…?
