‘An early Christmas gift’: Tyson Fury slams judges after loss to Oleksandr Usyk in heavyweight title clash
22 December 2024, 07:05
Tyson Fury has slammed the judges of his heavyweight title clash with Oleksandr Usyk.
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Fury, 36, lost 116-112 on all three judges' scorecards as his bid to avenge his only career loss ended conclusively with the extraordinary Usyk retaining his WBA, WBC and WBO belts.
After the bout, Fury slammed the judges, suggesting something may have been amiss with their decision.
"I swear to God, I thought I won it by at least three rounds," Fury said.
"I felt a little Christmas spirit in there and I think he got a little Christmas gift from them judges. An early Christmas gift.
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"I was confident I had won that fight again. I thought I'd won both fights but then again I've gone home with two losses on my record. I will always believe until the day I die that I won that fight.
"I'm not going to cry over spilt milk. It's happened now."
It wasn’t only Fury who felt the unanimous decision was strange.
"How did Tyson only get four rounds in this fight? It's impossible," the promoter Frank Warren told DAZN.
"Only four rounds. Each of them gave him four rounds, four different rounds. I'm not saying this because I'm biased, but everyone along the front there all thought it went the same way.
"It's nuts. It's nuts, I don't get it. I'm really disappointed with that. I thought he was in control of the fight and boxed extremely well. Usyk was on the back foot for most of the fight, but it is what it is."
Fury's future now comes into question following a second successive defeat to Usyk, but Warren declined to speculate on what he might do.
"I don't know. He's very disappointed, like I am as well. It's up to him," Warren said.
"It's too early, just after a fight. Obviously emotions are running high. We'll have to wait and see what happens for Tyson in the future. He'll have to make up his mind."
