How Tyson Fury can crack Oleksandr Usyk code in bid for rematch revenge
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Oleksandr Usyk was asked one question as he sank to his stool at the end of the seventh round. On the biggest night of his career, and the biggest the heavyweight division had seen in a generation, the Ukrainian was behind on each of the judges’ scorecards.
All three were in agreement the last three rounds had been won by Tyson Fury. One member of Usyk’s corner wiped away at a cut on his right eyebrow, as the Ukrainian closed his eyes and muttered to himself. Sensing the increasingly desperate need for a turning point, head coach Yurii Tkachenko halted talk of jabs and hooks. “You want the crucifix?” he asked. Usyk said yes, opened his eyes and kissed the cross as Tkachenko leant forward.
“From that moment, the fight took a turn,” Usyk tells Standard Sport. “It shifted in my favour and became much more intense. I remember my thoughts that I need to move forward. And I remember an extraordinary force behind me — a presence I recognise from my prayers. It was as if an angel was standing with me. Though no one was physically there, the strength and encouragement were undeniable.”.
What followed was a second wind of the kind named by the Met Office. Usyk caught Fury flush with a one-two in the eighth and followed it with a huge left hand, one that left the Briton pawing away at his nose and his right eye marked up. The fight had swung, but the storm for Fury had barely begun. Usyk’s ninth-round assault was extraordinary. He sent Fury staggering from rope to rope, a succession of clubbing lefts landing without reply. Near enough defenceless for 20 seconds until the referee stepped in with a standing count, Fury was saved only by the bell that immediately followed.
