TYSON Fury’s attempt to avenge a first career defeat ultimately proved unsuccessful overnight, as Oleksandr Usyk retained his unified world heavyweight titles in their much-anticipated rematch from Riyadh.
Yet while IBF world heavyweight titleholder Daniel Dubois lacked tact in confronting the Ukrainian to call for a rematch himself, 16 months after their Wroclaw encounter was shrouded in controversy, Queensberry chief Frank Warren made clear his displeasure at the three judges’ scorecards.
First he detailed his disbelief in a ringside interview with DAZN’s Ade Oladipo, adamant his man did enough to win over 12 rounds and avenge a split decision loss first time around.
Then during a 10-minute press conference later, he reaffirmed that stance questioning how any judge could choose not to give Fury any of the last seven rounds. The round-by-round scoring was split, though the trio came to the same 116-112 conclusion in Usyk’s favour.
Panamanian late stand-in Ignacio Robles gave Fury the ninth, Puerto Rico’s Geraldo Martinez the final round while Chicago’s Patrick Morley had the Brit 4-1 up after five rounds but didn’t feel the 36-year-old did enough to score any more the rest of the evening.
Somewhat ironically, the 16-year professional judge has overseen more bouts (822) than his two colleagues per BoxRec, including multiple WBO world championship contests in recent times.
He was the dissenting judge scoring Katie Taylor vs. Chantelle Cameron 1 a 95-95 draw last May, scored Joseph Parker a 115-111 winner against Zhilei Zhang in March and gave Denys Berinchyk a 115-113 nod in his lightweight world title fight with Emanuel Navarrete two months later.
When asked by Boxing News during the presser, as to what rounds he gave Fury after the fifth, he acknowledged his natural bias but answered: “I gave him at least four, that’s how I saw it. I mean the last one, he won. I just don’t see how anybody could not give him a round in the last seven, what could they possibly be watching?”
Fury’s manager Spencer Brown interjected shortly afterwards to further labour the point, saying Egis Klimas, Alex Krassyuk and the rest of team Usyk were looking uncomfortable and came up to say they were unsure of which way the judges would be scoring it after the final bell.
Warren continued, saying he and a neutral Hall of Fame boxer-turned-promoter were both in agreement that Fury was a clear winner.
“Oscar de La Hoya – a neutral – sat two [seats] along from me, we were scoring it together and agreed, he had it four rounds, I thought the minimum was three.
“I thought he won it well and by more than that, was trying to be a little bit, y’know unbiased. All of them along the front – Egis, Alex – they didn’t have the look of somebody who thought they’d won.”
