Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk | PPV - May 18, 2024

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[Thomastearns]

With all of Fury's recently suspicious antics and past record perhaps he'd be better off waiting until boxing is officially adopted into the Enhanced Games where there is no testing and all forms of performance enhancing substances are allowed?

Apparently they intend to include athletics, swimming, weightlifting, gymnastics and combat sports, though no date or venue for the event has yet been set.

Given boxing's recent record with testing, or the lack of it, it's all just a matter of time, surely. We all know Fury's been partial to nandralone in the past and maybe the present.

Unfortunately Fury's main problem with the Enhanced Games will be that the competitors there will not be pretending to be clean, thereby demonstrating a degree of honesty.

With a career littered with contradictions, it's easy to see that honesty has never been Tyson Fury's strongest characteristic.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/swimming/68248821

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Fight we... . ... ..

Oh wait..

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Six Judges And Instant Replay For The Fury – Usyk Fight?

WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman is suggesting the upcoming four-belt heavyweight unification showdown between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk should perhaps have as many as six ringside judges, this along with the use of instant replay video technology being in place. Sulaiman, speaking once again with Sky Sports, said that with additional scoring judges, a bad or controversial decision is less likely.

“Anybody can have a bad night,” Sulaiman said, referring to judges. “But if you have more officials then the possibility of a wrong score goes to the minimum.”

We have for certain seen some odd decisions over the years, along with some terrible decisions and, let’s face it, some good old, plane robberies. But would six judges working a fight iron out the problem? What’s that old saying, ‘too many cooks spoil the broth?’ If three judges cannot competently score a boxing match, then why should we trust six judges to do the job? Wouldn’t six score cards simply result in more confusion with a close, hard to score fight?

“Boxing is a sport in which change is very difficult to get. We’re purists, traditionalists, we don’t want changes,” Sulaiman said. “I will continue to make the proposal. Some like the idea, some of the people in the decision-making process. We will see. We had proposed to use five judges, or six judges. However that was not considered. It did not happen. I would still recommend [it].

“We do have a remote scoring system which is used for training and evaluating ring officials. They score live in the WBC system that we have developed. We have found through more fights done in this system that the more officials that score a fight, the less possibility of a wrong decision. Anybody can have a bad night. If you have one judge have a bad night and the two others get it correct, you still save the fight. You have two judges with a difficult fight and then one round can shift the whole result. But if you have more officials then the possibility of a wrong decision goes to the minimum. But we will see. That’s the only intention to make sure there’s no controversy. Now we have the biggest fight in 25 years in the heavyweight division. So we have to try to do our best.”

Just why Sulaiman is wanting to implement six scoring officials for a big fight, or for any fight, right now might be a question you ask. You will no doubt have other questions. But again, if three judges, for want of a better expression, ‘cannot be trusted,’ then why would six wise men or women sat at ringside be trusted?

It remains to be see if additional judges are brought in, for the Usyk-Fury fight or for any other fight. And would the other boxing organisations follow suit if this did happen? Sulaiman says he is terribly concerned about the possibility of the May 18 heavyweight unification clash suffering a controversy. “That in a fight of this magnitude would be absolutely unacceptable,” he said.

But to repeat, is additional judges the answer?

[joshj909]

More incompetent judges just adds credibility to the other incompetent judges. More expensive and probably more difficult to bribe them though

[IRONFIST]

Rather than more corrupt judges, we need properly vetted judges and refs, too much corruption still going on. We know that Fury and Usyk will 98% most likely go to the scorecards, close contest they'll give it to Usyk with the Ukraine story situation factored in...

[joshj909]

Rather than more corrupt judges, we need properly vetted judges and refs, too much corruption still going on. We know that Fury and Usyk will 98% most likely go to the scorecards, close contest they'll give it to Usyk with the Ukraine story situation factored in...

The Ukraine story will have absolutely nothing to do with it. Fury robbing Ngannou and Frank being the lead promoter for this will be way more important.

[IRONFIST]

Rather than more corrupt judges, we need properly vetted judges and refs, too much corruption still going on. We know that Fury and Usyk will 98% most likely go to the scorecards, close contest they'll give it to Usyk with the Ukraine story situation factored in...

The Ukraine story will have absolutely nothing to do with it. Fury robbing Ngannou and Frank being the lead promoter for this will be way more important.

Like heck it won't, if it's a close fight, Fury beat Ngannou, ask Paulie Malignaggi he along with most neutrals had Fury winning. FW won't have any sway, this is for the undisputed title, not one of his domestic level clashes.

[squiggy]

They don't give Lomachenko benefit of the doubt in close fights, and he's Ukranian.

[Finkel]

THIS ^^^

Whilst I understand the concern about judges. It is baffling to me that some think Usyk will be favoured in this fight. As you say, where was the benefit of the doubt for Lomachenko in a fight that would have cemented his status in boxing history?.

Then throw in that the Saudis want to make Fury v Joshua for their "undisputed" belt (and aren't even being shy about letting everyone know this) and I don't see where this idea that Fury will be robbed on the cards comes from.

The Saudis are where the money is, the orgs clearly want to be a part of that. The IBF who normally would have stripped Usyk by now are also clearly in lock step with Saudi interests too. Based on the next fight that the Saudis want to make being Joshua v Fury, this should tell everyone what they need to know about who will be favoured if Usyk v Fury is a close fight. Then throw in the WBC (Fury being their champion) wanting to trial new technology at the highest level (which is wild in itself) and it should raise red flags as to what is going on here

[tonyevs]

The interview following the cut and rearranged date was quite concerning. His Excellency sat with Fury appeared like he was part of Team Fury not neutral at all.

Fury certainly fits their PR better. When a kingdom is still chopping the heads off people in the streets, then a potty mouth like Fury is totally acceptable as publicity.

[Monzon83]

Usyk going to get screwed here.

[KiwiRider]

I still think Uysk has a chance of stopping Fury. It's probably his best chance of winning the fight.
It makes me nervous when I hear this setup for Joshua vs Fury, and I'm sure it isn't falling on deaf ears at the Uysk camp.

[Thomastearns]

The interview following the cut and rearranged date was quite concerning. His Excellency sat with Fury appeared like he was part of Team Fury not neutral at all.

Fury certainly fits their PR better. When a kingdom is still chopping the heads off people in the streets, then a potty mouth like Fury is totally acceptable as publicity.

Yes, that was a poor look by the host.

The big problem is that Fury v Joshua in every way is a far bigger fight than Usyk v Joshua (3).

Everyone knows.

I think it's also fair to say that any boxer who even sounds as if he's from Eastern Europe tends to get a bad deal as far as the judging goes.

GGG v Canelo 1 was a prime example.
Bivol v Canelo was another. Yes Bivol won, but the scoring was atrocious.


So Usyk clearly needs to win this and win this clearly. I can't imagine a supremely calculated boxer like Usyk going all out for a KO as that's never been his style.

Best way is to win 12 rounds and settle for 7 on the cards.

The good news is that the Saudis now have Zhang v Parker on the undercard of Joshua v Ngannou on March 8th.

[tonyevs]

If Zhang can look as devastating against Parker then maybe the Saudi`s can tap into the Chinese market to make Zhang v Usyk bigger than Fury v Joshua.

Fury bombed in his PPV in the USA recently and Joshua has not impressed the American market either, so outside of the UK its hard to see them fighting would actually gather that much interest.

[quickeyg]

Message sent.

[The Gratest]

Reminds me of the time Riddick Bowe slimmed down a lot (too much) for the Golota rematch...

[tonyevs]

I said months back Fury would slim down for the rematch .. I think my weight for him predicted that more than anyone else.

That gives Fury's, and his few remaining fans confidence because he/they still somehow think he is the 2nd coming of Ali, where as really it's been his bulk that has been his biggest advantages (remember Big John after he struggled with Wallin).

Crash dieting goes first off the legs as we can see there, and takes the longest to build back up.
Usyk dealt with the far stronger and fitter AJ - he'll handle this Fury more easily.

More convinced Usyk stops a very weak and fragile looking Fury.

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Undercard is all set

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Press Release

His Excellency Turki Alalshikh, Chairman of the General Entertainment Authority (GEA), has revealed a thrilling undercard for the ‘Ring of Fire’ first undisputed heavyweight clash of the 21st century between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk, which will include a further two world title fights.

The highly-anticipated event with unprecedented interest from across the globe is set to take place on Saturday May 18 at Kingdom Arena, Riyadh, and forms part of the Riyadh Calendar schedule.

The undefeated Australian Jai Opetaia, who triumphed against Ellis Zorro at the ‘Day of Reckoning’ in December, will take on three-time cruiserweight world champion Mairis Briedis for the IBF world championship and Ring Magazine belt in a rematch of their exhilarating July 2022 encounter when Opetaia claimed the belts by overcoming the celebrated Latvian fighter.

Undefeated Welsh Olympian Joe Cordina will defend his IBF world super featherweight championship against IBO title holder, Northern Irishman Anthony Cacare, with the heavyweight theme being bolstered by the unbeaten German star Agit Kabayel going up against unbeaten Cuban Frank Sanchez as both return to Riyadh following their knockout victories on the ‘Day of Reckoning’ card in December in a WBC Final Eliminator.

UK lightweight sensation Mark Chamberlain will also be heading back to The Kingdom after proving to be a major hit on his opening night in Riyadh. The big punching 25-year-old featured at ‘Knockout Chaos’ in March and will now face the dangerous Nigerian Joshua Oluwaseun Wahab. In another significant attraction, Sergey Kovalev – the former long-standing light heavyweight world champion - will go up against the undefeated Robin Sirwan Safar at cruiserweight.

Formidable young heavyweight star Moses Itauma, the World Amateur champion, who is tipped to become the future face of boxing’s marquee division, takes on Ilja Mezencev in his ninth fight in the professional ranks at the age of just 19. New Zealand Olympian David Nyika faces Michael Seitz at cruiserweight and English featherweight Isaac Lowe is matched with Hasibullah Ahmadi.

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[quickeyg]

Sky Sports Best Bits from the Press Conference

[tonyevs]

Tyson Fury not just looking like Uncle Fester - but sounding like him too.

There has been very little build up to this fight. Is that because it's in Saudi or because people are expecting Tyson Fury to cancel for the 5th time?

[NateJR]

I've never been as big of a Usyk fan as I will be the night he fights Fury. Fury IMO is one of the most overrated heavyweights in history and has made a career of leaning on guys and tiring them out. Furys actual boxing skills are severely overrated.