Trainer Dominic Ingle insists former WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury should not have been beaten by smaller fighter Oleksandr Usyk in their undisputed clash in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia last May.
Ingle’s argument: anger was not fit enough
Ingle felt Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) “wasn’t fit” to maintain his dominance when he briefly hurt Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) mid-fight. He says all Fury had to do was keep the pace for the rest of the fight to get the win, but he couldn’t do that because of his conditioning.
Fury did look badly conditioned, but that has been the norm for him in recent years. He beat Deontay Wilder, Derek Chisora and Dillian Whyte while looking chubby. No one made excuses for Fury’s conditioning in those fights. Only after Usyk beat him did people come to his defense and blamed the loss on his lack of modesty.
Ingle fails to mention that Fury was badly injured by Usyk in the ninth round and was saved from a knockout by the referee. The A-side fighter, Fury, got a rare standing eight count just when he needed it to avoid being finished.
“For me, Tyson wasn’t fit enough because in the rounds he did get on top of Usyk, and there were two or three rounds in the middle of the fight where he had Usyk in trouble, it’s just a case of holding on for the rest of the fight. He couldn’t do it. So that means he wasn’t fit enough,” coach Dominic Ingle told the Boxing King Media YouTube channel, discussing his views on why Tyson Fury lost to Oleksandr Usyk last May.
“Tyson Fury, he shouldn’t have been beaten by Usyk, because Tyson Fury at his best, and I don’t believe he was at his best, would have beaten Usyk. So, for me he was not fit enough. When you’re a lighter fighter like Usyk, that’s what you have to do,” Ingle said.
Fury’s age and Usyk’s skill
Fury is a 36-year-old approaching his mid-40s, and he had no intention of beating the relatively young and cheerful Usyk. The difference in physical age and conditioning between the two was too much for Fury to win. There’s no way Fury can be at his best without a time machine that takes him back to 2015. He’s old, and he’s not going to be at his best.
‘You should try gassing the bigger guy. Keep him under pressure and keep him working; keep throwing shots when you’re not actually doing anything. That’s what Usyk did. He pressured him and made Tyson do things he shouldn’t have done. Tyson should have been nice and calm and kept it under control, but he didn’t,” says Ingle.
Usyk won because he was a superior fighter to Fury and dominated the second half of the fight with his timely shots to the head. Additionally, Fury was unable to use the crushing tactics he had come to rely on to win his fights under trainer Sugarhill Steward.
When Fury tried to grab and lean, Usyk pushed him away hard. Without it, Fury was helpless, forced to try to beat Usyk with his skills rather than his wrestling. He couldn’t do it because he didn’t have the talent.
Fury is a big guy who hasn’t come to terms with size and careful matchups made by his management all these years. His best wins were against an old Wladimir Klitschko and Deontay Wilder. That’s it. Fury’s entire career was off of those two, and he would have lost to Wladimir in his prime and should have been beaten twice by Wilder.
“He kind of worked on what Usyk was doing instead of controlling the fight himself and letting Usyk fight the way he wanted to fight. Tyson has enough ability to keep it under control. He didn’t do it because he didn’t have it in the tank; he didn’t have the reserve when he had to step on the gas to subdue Usyk. He couldn’t,” says Ingle.
“Tyson, realistically, shouldn’t have been on his feet against Usyk. He shouldn’t have come anywhere near him. With the height and reach that Tyson has, he didn’t utilize it properly to keep him long and away,” Ingle said.
Damage from Wilder Fights
Fury has never had a big chin, even during the early part of his career, but his three fights against Deontay Wilder have probably reduced his punch resistance. He was knocked out cold in the 12th round in the first fight with Wilder in 2018 and surprisingly counted out.
Fury received what many felt was a slow count in the third fight when Wilder dropped him in the fourth round. Although Fury escaped what should have been two knockout losses, those fights took something out of him, leaving him vulnerable to Usyk.
The left hand that hurt Usyk Fury in the ninth round had enough power to knock anyone out in the division, and he took it, but was in bad shape. The flurry of punches that Usyk then rained down on a defenseless Fury should have led to the referee stopping the fight.
