By Norm Frauenheim –
On the career map, redemption is a risky stop. Retirement is right around the corner. So, too, is a rematch.
It could go either way for Tyson Fury, who has repeatedly called his second fight with Oleksandr Usyk Dec. 21 for the heavyweight title as a chance at redemption for his lone loss by split decision to the tireless, stubbornly resilient Usyk last spring.
The stakes, heightened by an either-or scenario, were there Wednesday at a London news conference notable more for what wasn’t said than what was. Fury didn’t have much to say. Or sing.
He’s known for turning a boxing newser into a lousy lounge act. One liners, cheap insults, a few lyrics from Bye-Bye Miss American Pie and mocking gestures have long been a part of the Fury show.
But the well-rehearsed act wasn’t there Wednesday, perhaps because he knows it played a part in his scorecard loss in Riyadh last May.
“What’s going through my mind?’’ Fury said when asked about the looming rematch, the only time he’s ever had to come back from defeat. “I’m just looking forward to a fantastic fight. Last time in May, it was a fantastic fight. Oleksandr won the fight, fair and square. Just looking to put on a great fight again.
“It was very close last time, he got it by a point. A little bit more focus, a little bit more lack of complacency, and I should do the job I need to do. Nothing drastic has to change. A bit more of the same. A little bit more focus, like I say, and I will be victorious.”
The news conference was not without some theatrical touches, of course. Usyk showed up in costume, dressed like Hitman: Agent 47. It’s a film and a video game. But the eyes were all Usyk. Their intensity is impossible to disguise.
“I don’t have motivation,’’ Usyk said, cryptically. “Only my regime, only my concentration.’’
That concentration is unmistakable. It’s also a challenge Fury couldn’t crack in May. It’s there, within Usyk, at a sustained level rare in any sport. Fury was winning the first fight through eight rounds.
In the ninth, however, Usyk found a way, throwing combinations that knocked down Fury. Fury recovered, but without the will or the energy to win a close fight. Maybe, that changes in the rematch with a more committed, better-conditioned Fury. The odds, however, make Usyk a slight favorite, in part perhaps because he knows how to win the close ones.
Usyk’s singular concentration seems to make him immune to Fury’s clever bag of tricks. Usyk might not have the power to knock out Fury. Deontay Wilder couldn’t either. Over three fights, Fury withstood Wilder’s power, which accounted for a 97.67 percent KO rate, astonishing even for the heavyweight division.
Fury got up in their first meeting, Lazarus-like, in the 12th and final round in 2018 for a draw in downtown Los Angeles. In retrospect, Fury’s ability to survive what no one else could in his initial meeting with Wilder dictated the rest of the trilogy.
Fury didn’t exactly take away Wilder’s only real weapon, but he survived it, leaving Wilder with doubts. Fury fractured Wilder’s singular confidence in a way he has not in trying to crack Usyk’s concentration.
Meanwhile, questions persist about what Fury has left in the wake of the Wilder rivalry, including a violent third fight. Fury won that one, an 11th-round stoppage in October 2021 in Las Vegas. But neither fighter emerged unscathed. There were five knockdowns — Wilder down three times, Fury twice. It was dangerous, definitive and dramatic.
Promoters called it:
“Once And For All.”
For Wilder, it looks as if it was. He has lost his last two fights, first a decision to Joseph Parker in December and then a fifth-round stoppage to Zhilei Zang in June. In both, he looked like a shell of the feared fighter he was against Fury.
Yet, Fury, too, often looks as if he doesn’t have the same durability. He got knocked down by Francis Ngannou, a mixed-martial arts fighter and novice boxer, yet managed to escape with a debatable split-decision. Then, he wasn’t able to overcome a late knockdown delivered by Usyk, whose versatile skillset and knowhow are seemingly inexhaustible.
In an interview this week with DAZN, Fury said he had little fear of Usyk. Wilder’s raw power, he suggested, was a more immediate threat.
“Whether it is round one, round ten or round twelve with two seconds to go – one mistake, it’s game over,’’ Fury told the streaming network, “With Usyk, I don’t feel that much terror.’’
Fury went on to praise Usyk. He called him a good boxer.
“But there’s different levels to power,’’ Fury said. “One man can switch you off like a TV, and one man can hit you and hurt you and wear you down.’’
In the end, this one, like the last one, figures to go the distance. Question is: Can Fury still go there?
