Tyson Fury was convinced he won the fight.
The scorecards favored Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk by a split decision — making him boxing’s first undisputed champion since 1999 — and dinged Fury’s ledger with his first defeat, but Fury, who held the WBC heavyweight title since February 2020, theorized that judges favored Usyk because of his country’s war with Russia.
“I believe I won that fight,” Fury told DAZN. “I believe he won a few of the rounds, but I won the majority of them. … We all put on a good fight, best we could do. And, you know, his country is at war, so people are siding with someone with a country at war. But make no mistake, I won that fight in my opinion, and I’ll be back.
Fury and Usyk both hinted at a rematch clause in their contract and floated October as the month where that could happen — with ESPN reporting that it’s planned for Oct. 12.
Usyk, who remained undefeated and moved to 22-0, joined the likes of Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis, Joe Frazier, Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali and Floyd Patterson as the only undisputed champions, according to the Associated Press.
“It’s [a] big opportunity for me, for my family, for my country, for history,” Usyk said, per ESPN. “It’s [a] great day.”
The scorecards for all 12 rounds remained nearly identical — with Fury and Usyk swapping nines and 10s between the three judges — but in the ninth round, when Fury stumbled along the edge of the ring for nearly 20 seconds, he received three eights while Usyk logged three 10s, according to The Athletic.
And by the end of the 12th round, Manuel Oliver Palomo scored it 115-112 in favor of Usyk.
Craig Metcalfe ended with 114-113 in favor of Fury.
Mike Fitzgerald finished with 114-113 and with Usyk ahead.
But in Fury’s eyes, that should’ve all ended differently.
“I thought I did enough,” Fury told reporters in his press conference, “but I’m not a judge. I can’t judge a fight while I’m boxing it. If they would’ve said to me in the last round or whatever, ‘You’re down, go out, try and finish it, I would’ve done that.’ But everyone in the corner believed we were up.”
