Tyson Fury’s Showboating Played Factor In Loss To Usyk Says Gareth A. Davies

Boxing analyst Gareth A. Davies believes one of the main factors causing Tyson Fury’s defeat last weekend was his decision to showboat against unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk after getting ahead in the first fight in the first half of their undisputed championship in Riyadh.

Gareth feels that Fury’s showboating cost in in the fight, which ultimately was won by Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) by a 12-round split decision by the scores:

114-113: Usyk
115-112: Usyk
114-113: Fury

Interestingly, Gareth has no problems with the referee Mark Nelson giving Fury a standing eight count in the ninth round when he was one punch away from taking a long nap for the night.

Gareth is in the same boat as British promoter Eddie Hearn in not having a problem with the referee saving Fury from being knocked out, which tainted the fight, making it look to some fans like he artificially kept Tyson from losing at that moment.

I don’t buy it at all. Fury stopped showboating early in the fight and struggled with the speed, work rate, and fast pace of the better-conditioned Usyk set. Showboating was NOT the reason why Fury lost, but that might make pro-Fury fans feel better at seeing their hero suffer his first career loss.

“It would have been a horribly controversial end if he had been stopped in the ninth round because people would have argued a toss about that,” said boxing analyst Gareth A. Davies to talkSport Boxing about Tyson Fury in the ninth round when he was out on his feet, getting the living daylights beaten out of him by Oleksandr Usyk last Saturday night.

“It was a decent piece of refereeing. It was very close. The showboating for me cost him [Fury] in some ways. I think if they have a second fight, he’ll fight it in a different way, and I think he’ll [Fury] be more aggressive, and I think it’s more risky for him.

“I think Fury is the underdog going into the second fight, and I think there’s signs of aging and I’ve never seen him as hurt as that,” said Gareth.

I hope Gareth isn’t just now noticing that Fury is showing signs of aging because he’s been showing it for a long time. In Fury’s last fight against non-boxer Francis Ngannou, he looked well past his prime, winning a controversial ten-round split decision last October.

Fury’s fans gave him a pass at the time, blaming his performance on his weight. Even with Fury weighing a career-high at 277, you could see the age. Fury had been able to disguise his advancing age due to the weak opposition he’d been fighting since 2021, beating a shell-shocked Deontay Wilder, Dillian Whyte, and Dereck Chisora.

“He [Usyk] shortchanged the fight with that left cross in the ninth round, and even then, the tenth, eleventh, and the twelfth were close rounds as well,” said Gareth.