Tyson Fury after his defeat by Oleksandr Usyk (Image: PA)
has no regrets over attributing his defeat by in May to the war in . The ‘Gypsy King’ experienced his first professional loss against the Ukrainian, succumbing to a split decision in Riyadh.
In a shocking turn of events, the British boxer alleged that the judges favoured Usyk due to the ongoing conflict in . “I believe I won that fight,” Fury declared post-match.
“I believe he won a few of the rounds but I won the majority of them. We both put on a good fight, best we could do. His country is at war, so people are siding with the country at war. Make no mistake, I won that fight in my opinion and I’ll be back. I’ve got a rematch clause. I thank Jesus for all the victories he’s given me, I’ve had a split-decision loss to a good little man and I thank him again. In the mighty name of Jesus, we go back home to our families and we run it back in October. Good luck to Oleksandr, well done. God bless you.”
During his post-fight press conference, Fury commented: “It was a close fight, I thought I did enough but I’m not a judge. I can’t judge a fight while I’m boxing it. If they would have said to me in the last round, ‘you’re down, go out and try and finish him’ – I would have done that. Everyone in the corner believed we were up. All I had to do was just keep boxing and doing what I was doing. I thought I was getting it.”
“It was what it was, I’m not going to cry about spilt milk. I’ve had plenty of victories and I gave God the glory. I’ve had this one loss in a close fight with a good man like Usyk. It was what it was. I tried my best in there, I was having a lot of fun actually. I don’t know if it looked like it, but I was playing around, hands behind my back. I was enjoying it. He’s a good fighter, I was catching him and he was catching me. It was a good fight.”
In a recent face-off with Usyk ahead of their rematch on December 21. Fury spoke about the backlash he faced for his comments after the fight, saying: “No, I don’t regret anything. Why would I regret that? ” He added: “Listen, it was a close fight. Usyk got the raise like he said, he won the fight. Fair play to him! I don’t make excuses, the man beat me on the night, fair play.”
“I believe I won the fight, that’s my opinion. Just like if you had an opinion, he had an opinion, everybody had an opinion. But he got his hand raised an I congratulated him, it’s on TV to see. I kissed his cross as a thank you very much.”
Despite some in the boxing world thinking Usyk had the edge in their initial bout, ‘The Gypsy King’ maintained his showing was flawless. Speaking to BoxNation, he declared: “I’ve not got any excuses. I thought I did absolutely fantastic. I give myself a 10/10 rating. I thought it was my best performance in the last six or seven years.”