Tyson Fury watched his Oleksandr Usyk loss ‘100 times.’ His takeaway? Robbery does not exist in boxing

Tyson Fury does not believe he was “robbed” of a win in his first fight with Oleksandr Usyk.

The former WBC heavyweight champion has watched footage of the extremely competitive 12-round bout that resulted in his only professional loss “100 times,” Fury told Uncrowned. The plucky Brit is confident he did enough to defeat Usyk and become boxing’s first fully unified heavyweight champion in the four-belt era.

Seven months of hindsight has nevertheless encouraged Fury to account for human error in the entirely subjective science of judging boxing. This sport’s most spectacular showman isn’t sure what American Mike Fitzgerald, who scored Usyk for a 114-113 win, or Spain’s Manuel Palomo, who credited Usyk with a 115-112 victory, could see from their potentially blocked positions around the ring .

Fury beat Usyk by one point, 114-113, according to Canadian referee Craig Metcalfe. If not for the late ninth-round knockdown that Ukraine’s Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) was credited with as the ropes held up a dazed Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs), they would have fought for a split draw May 18 at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

If Fury is bitter about his first professional defeat, he hid it well in the build-up to their 12-round rematch Saturday night at Kingdom Arena (DAZN pay-per-view, $39.99).

“I feel like there are so many different elements to judge,” Fury told Uncrowned. “You know, 10 people can watch a game and six of them will feel the same, four won’t or whatever. I don’t think there’s really such a thing as robberies anymore, because it’s just opinions, right? Three judges can see the fight differently and can score it differently. It’s just how a person sees it and how they judge it. Sometimes it’s very difficult.”

In an attempt to both pass the time and develop a better understanding of refereeing duties, Fury revisited two closely contested, high profile fights during his recently concluded training camp in Malta. Fury and members of his team offered differing opinions on Artur Beterbiev’s majority points victory over Dmitry Bivol on October 12 and Katie Taylor’s unanimous decision over Amanda Serrano on November 15.

“I saw a couple of fights that people said were robberies, big robberies,” Fury said. “The first one was Bivol against Beterbiev, and I hear a lot of people saying, ‘Bivol won that one. Bivol won this fight. Yada, yada, yada.’ So I sat down the next day and I judged the fight, non-biased, and I judged the fight round by round, on a 10-9 must system, and I had the exact same score as Glenn Feldman, two rounds up to Beterbiev (115-113). But my brother scored the match and he got a draw (114-114). Another friend of ours scored it – he had it two rounds to Bivol (115-113).

“So I guess it’s just what a person likes. Then I heard this big heist story about Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano 2. And I judged that again. I’m not biased towards any of the girls. I judged it again, 10-9, and I had Katie Taylor win it by one point. But again, that’s just different people’s opinions. Everyone has a different opinion of what they believe there is right, which is wrong as we know. So it’s hard. I know a lot of these judges and people involved in boxing get excited because most people see it one way and they sees it in a different way. It doesn’t mean they’re a bad judge or anything. It just means they saw it in a different way than the next man saw it.”

The judging panel for Fury’s rematch with Usyk drew unwanted attention Thursday and Friday because an experienced, unconflicted referee, New Jersey’s Steve Weisfeld, was named an 11th-hour replacement for Miami’s Fernando Barbosa, a senior vice president of Disney Latin America and broadcaster for ESPN KnockOut, one of the company’s Spanish-language channels. Barbosa’s appointment to the Middle East Professional Boxing Commission sparked controversy because Fury’s co-promoter, Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc., has an exclusive content deal to broadcast boxing on ESPN, ESPN+ and ESPN pay-per-view — a Disney subsidiary.

The card, headlined by Usyk-Fury 2, will only be available via DAZN pay-per-view, although the perceived conflict of interest was nonetheless troubling. Barbosa reportedly fell ill and was unable to fly from Miami to Riyadh.

“At the end of the day, we’re two professional men and I’m sure we’ll get some professional referees and shit,” Fury said. “I’m sure they’ll (come to) a good decision. You can’t really do much more than that. Let’s hope they do the right thing. If Usyk wins, give him the fight. If I win, give me the fight. It’s not rocket science, is it?”

It’s not rocket science, but it is a highly subjective one, a reality that 36-year-old Fury appreciates even more now than when he settled for a 12-round split draw with American rival Deontay Wilder in December 2018 at the Staples Center . in Los Angeles. Fury recovered from two knockdowns during their fight for Wilder’s WBC belt, most notably one that knocked him flat on his back and seemingly out before somehow getting to his feet in the 12th round.

The resilient Fury managed to stay upright when Usyk bombarded him with power punches late in the ninth round back in May, but the ropes held him up, which counted as a knockdown. Referee Mark Nelson never came close to stopping the action.

Fury recovered, found success in the championship rounds and narrowly lost for the first time in his 16-year professional career.

“The WBC (judge, Metcalfe) had me win by one round, 114-113,” Fury said. “The IBF (judge, Fitzgerald) had it 114-113 to Usyk. And the WBA (judge, Palomo) had it by two points to Usyk (115-112). Then again, if one of those judges had a second round on another way … say round two, for example – WBC (judge) and WBA (judge) had me win it, but IBF (judge) had Usyk win it .

“If the IBF (judge) would have agreed with the other two, it would have been a draw on our scorecard. So it’s all different. It’s just meaningful, very meaningful, and then all the views and angles that they have or distractions or what’s going on. But again, I don’t think there’s such a thing as daylight robbery. I just think that’s how people see it.”