By: Sean Crose
“He was very disappointed but very philosophical,” promoter Frank Warren has told Sky Sports about his fighter, former heavyweight titlist Tyson Fury. After finally meeting Oleksandr Usyk in the ring a few weeks back, Fury ended up suffering his first defeat after the back and fourth 12 rounder saw the skillful Usyk emerge victorious on the judge’s cards. Fortunately for Fury and his team, a rematch clause was signed before the first fight went down.
“The rematch was signed before the first fight took place anyway,” Warren said, “and that date will be set within the next month or so, both fighters said they want it and we’ll go from there.” Although his fighter lost, Warren made it clear that Fury-Usyk was a brawl to remember. “It was a fabulous fight,” he told Sky Sports, “two absolute gladiators who didn’t leave anything in the ring in an epic fight in the most important fight of the 21st century…a very, very close fight and I think it will be an even bigger one next time.”
As far as Warren is concerned, it was a single shot from Usyk that ultimately led to the Ukrainian’s victory against Fury. “The truth of the matter,” said Warren, “is there was a point in the fight, I think at the end of the seventh round, when he caught Usyk with a couple of really good uppercuts and he was struggling a bit, but he went back to the corner and found a second wind and came out and caught Tyson with a really good shot on the nose…it seemed to trouble Tyson a bit, it took his momentum away a bit, obviously we know what happened in the ninth.”
Fans certainly do know what happened in the ninth – Usyk hurt Fury to the point where the fight was almost stopped. Even though the match was allowed to continue, Fury still found himself on the mat. While he was able to beat the count, Fury went on to lose by a close decision nonetheless. Fury, however, is a very good fighter. What more, the fight with Usyk was a very good bout. There’s reason, then, to want to see the two men square off once more.
“Tyson knows what he has to do,” Warren said to SkySports, “and I’m sure Usyk does. Both of those guys were in an absolute war, that has taken a lot out of both of them…it will be interesting to see when it does happen who it has impacted the most.”