Tonight awaits us the highly anticipated rematch between the two best heavyweights in the world, a fight too short to call but I’ll analyze it and give my opinion on how it might turn out…
Looking back at the first fight seven months ago, it could be that Fury had already won the fight after five or six rounds while he was on the move and was a mix of Fury’s showboating and Usyk’s ability to adapt in a fight the fate of anger on this occasion.
Ultimately, the decisive moment in this fight was the 9th round, which Usyk dominated and ended in the 10:8 round in Usyk’s favor. If Usyk had been 10-9 in that round, the fight would have ended in a majority draw. At the pinnacle of any sport, good margins always matter and I believe Fury can correct and correct the mistakes to get the job done tonight.
Make no mistake, Usyk is a generational great and the only fighter who wasn’t fazed by any of Fury’s mind games, which has resulted in a more focused and colder version of Fury this time around. All the games are done and this is a very different Tyson Fury.
There is no doubt that Fury has a great boxing IQ, as does Usyk. However, when it comes to rematches, I strongly believe that Fury is making the necessary adjustments to come back and improve more than Usyk. Two notable rematches that showed huge improvement, the first being against John Mcdermott in 2009 where Fury won a razor thin decision and many thought he could have lost.
In the rematch, which took place not immediately but three fights and nine months later, Fury won with a convincing stoppage in the 9th round. The more notable rematch was the second fight with Wilder. In the first fight, a vulnerable Fury recovered from a 12th round knockdown that resulted in a draw, and like the Mcdermott rematch, Fury faced Wilder again three fights later. The 2nd fight with Wilder ended with Fury obliterating him with a stoppage in the 7th round.
This rematch is different for a variety of reasons. Usyk is head and shoulders above both Mcdermott and Wilder. This is an immediate rematch and both fighters are arguably past their prime and reaching the end of their careers. Make no mistake, however, as both fighters were past their prime and nearing the end of their careers in many of the major heavyweight wars, including “The Thrilla” in Manilla in 1975 between Ali and Frazier in their trilogy, making it one of the greatest matches in heavyweight history and I think this match also lives up to expectations.
If Usyk were to win then I think this could be the last time we see both fighters in the ring again, which could do more. Fury would have suffered two defeats in a row, Usyk is unified champion in two weight classes and has already beaten two of the leading contenders, including current IBF world champion Daniel Dubois and former world champion Anthony Joshua.
A Fury win would open the division up to either a trilogy with Usyk, a massive fight with Anthony Joshua, or another joint fight with the winner of Dubois vs. Parker. If Parker wins, however, that’s a different story, as Parker and Fury are very close, but the point remains that a Fury win makes more money than an Usyk win, and that’s a fact.
How this match can be won is again very difficult to say and one very interesting statistic catches my eye. Usyk has never been officially knocked down in his professional career to date, although he was knocked out by unified light heavyweight world champion Artur Beterbiev in the amateurs in 2011 with a vicious body shot. Another interesting statistic is that Fury has won by knockout in every single round except round 12.
My prediction is that Fury will be knocked out in the 12th round because that stat just screams to me and I think Fury wants to leave it all in the ring this time.
I imagine there will be points, but I want to make a bold prediction and put a few pounds on Fury until the 12th round KO.
What do readers predict…?
