Tyson Fury’s head trainer Sugarhill Steward remains defensive about Tyson’s recent loss to Oleksandr Usyk as they prepare for their December 21 rematch in Riyadh. Why is Sugarhill so defensive? That’s what fans want to know.
Sugarhill blamed the loss on Fury being caught in the ninth round, suggesting he was trying to side step the blame to save his head.
As the captain of the Fury ship, Sugarhill bears the responsibility for his loss to Usyk on May 18, and he was the one who barked instructions into his corner, leading to his death.
During an interview this past week, Sugarhill bristled at simple questions about what went wrong in Fury’s 12-round split decision loss to unified heavyweight champion Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) on May 18.
This can be interpreted as a sign that Sugarhill, with his corner advice during the sinking episode, is trying to shut down further questions about his handling of the disaster. Some fans believe that Sugarhill gave the wrong advice in the corner, panicked, barking instructions, and was useless in helping the struggling Gypsy King Fury.
“He was caught. This is what went wrong. He was caught in the ninth round. What more should I say? In the ninth round he was caught,” said a prickly Sugarhill Steward Boxing King Media when asked ‘What went wrong’ in Tyson Fury’s loss to Oleksandr Usyk on May 18.
As you can see with the comment “He got caught” by Sugarhill, he sounds like a classic example of a person trying to deflect criticism from himself by making it look like it was just something that happened.
The reality is it goes back to Sugarhill, the trainer who gave Fury instructions. He fights with his back against the ropes instead of in the middle of the ring and just a sitting duck for Usyk’s left hand. The blame goes to Sugarhill because he should not have let Fury fight out of the ring area.
“It was already a close battle. He’s caught, and Usyk wins. What else is there to talk about? This is called a close fight. If it is a close fight, how in the world can anyone score it for some person? If you say it’s close, if it’s very close, how the f*** do you get it to some person?” said a flamboyant-sounding Sugarhill, who looks angry at this point in the interview, responding to simple questions.
“How can you be so adamant about, ‘I won’ or, ‘I didn’t win’ or the other person won or didn’t win when it was so close? It’s close. If it’s a close battle, guess what? You get three decisions. Either you won, you drew, or you lost. It’s as simple as that,” Steward said
Sugarhill is convinced it was a close fight last time, but it wasn’t when you consider Fury should have lost four of the first six rounds and then crumbled in the ninth round. It should have been a knockout win for Usyk. So, Sugarhill’s defensive comments about the fight being close are a smokescreen. Of course, he won’t say that Fury is blown out because that reflects on him as a trainer. He failed him.
“He’s about as good as he was before the fight. He’s always been a good fighter,” Sugarhill said when asked how good Oleksandr Usyk is.
Sugarhill didn’t seem interested in giving his thoughts on how good Usyk was during his fight with Fury, which could be interpreted as a sign that he didn’t want to give away any tips that Oleksandr’s teams could use in the rematch. . It doesn’t really matter.
Fury is in this fight. Sugarhill can be dumb in the run-up, and that won’t change anything about what will be played on December 21st. Usyk knows how to beat him and will capitalize on the things he learned from their previous fight.
Usyk discovered these weaknesses in Fury’s game:
- No inside game
- Vulnerable to storms
- Punch resistance poor
- Stamina problems.
