Our concerns were more than warranted when an ESPN executive/broadcaster was assigned to judge the Oleksandr Usyk vs. Tyson Fury heavyweight championship rematch, only to have his replacement chosen by a commission’s coin flip on Saturday afternoon.
Yes, you read that correctly. The puzzling process of replacing Miami’s Fernando Barbosa with Panama’s Ignacio Robles was rather ridiculous, necessary only because Barbosa’s appointment was even more emblematic of boxing’s broader problems.
We therefore must monitor how the Middle Eastern Professional Boxing (MEPB) commission assigns judges moving forward, because it clearly has a less stringent selection process than many commissions throughout the United States and the British Boxing Board of Control. We must admit, too, that the MEPB assigned a completely capable panel of judges to score Usyk-Fury 2.
Robles, Puerto Rico’s Gerardo Martinez and Chicago’s Patrick Morley more than got it right Saturday night at Kingdom Arena. They were perfect, in fact — so spot on that all three of them should be considered for the highest-profile fights throughout the world after proving themselves on a grand, potentially intimidating stage.
Each judge scored Usyk a 116-112 winner over Fury, the latter of whom dropped a second straight decision to a uniquely skilled, two-division undisputed champion who has emerged as a generational great and arguably the best boxer, pound-for-pound, in the sport. Their first fight, which Usyk won by split decision May 18 at Kingdom Arena, was closer than this rematch, even though Usyk nearly knocked out a stunned, stumbling Fury toward the end of the ninth round of that initial meeting.
Seven months later, there was no doubt about who won this 12-round DAZN pay-per-view main event.
Ukraine’s Usyk (23-0, 14 KOs) prevented an initially forceful Fury from employing the bullish strategy that enabled him to overwhelm Deontay Wilder in their 2020 WBC championship rematch. Fury (34-2-1, 24 KOs) engulfed Wilder with his pressure and physicality that night and won by seventh-round technical knockout.
But a resolute Usyk stood his ground when Fury attempted to move him backward on Saturday and oftentimes forced Fury onto his own back foot. The 37-year-old southpaw neutralized Fury’s trademark jab in the early rounds as well, which helped him get inside to land punches to the 6-foot-9, 281-pound Fury’s expansive body at times.
Pressing the action and crisply countering Fury’s punches pushed Usyk to consistently catch Fury with stinging left hands that, on occasion, knocked Fury off balance.
“I win,” Usyk said post-fight. “It’s good. … [Judging] is not my deal.”
Usyk couldn’t take issue with their identical scorecards because each judge credited the former fully unified cruiserweight champion for winning eight rounds. It appeared — to this Uncrowned columnist, anyway — that Usyk indeed won eight rounds.
While we shouldn’t celebrate completely competent scoring as if we should expect anything less, those of us who came into Saturday night fearful of another damaging, ominous outcome are left with some semblance of restored faith in judges’ abilities to get it right when it matters most. In Martinez, Morley and Robles, we also have developed three more options for working the biggest fights in the United States, where frustrated fans commonly complain about using the same rotations of five or six effective, experienced, effective judges for title fights.
Steve Weisfeld, who lost the abovementioned coin flip, is among the American judges who works elite-level main events regularly.
Frank Warren, Fury’s co-promoter, predictably protested the English legend’s loss. Warren’s company, Queensberry Promotions, also represents Daniel Dubois, who jumped into the ring and demanded his own rematch versus Usyk.
“Yeah, if they want to do it,” Warren said post-fight in reference to Usyk-Dubois 2. “But I want to tell you something — the fact that Tyson only got four rounds in this fight, it’s impossible.”
Maybe Warren’s viewpoint for the bout was blocked. As Fury explained during a recent interview with Uncrowned, such a phenomena sometimes causes judges to score fights differently from ringside than fans and media who are either further away from the ring or at home. Whatever Warren’s rationale might be, this wasn’t a night to complain about judging for a change.
Fury left the ring without commenting about the second loss of his 16-year pro career, however he argued adamantly in his post-fight press conference that he should’ve been the victor and called the decision “an early Christmas present” for his opponent. Usyk acknowledged, though, that this, too, was at least a competitive contest.
“Listen, [Fury is] a great fighter,” Usyk said. “It’s a great opponent. … [An] unbelievable 24 rounds for my career. Thank you so much.”
The 2012 Olympic gold medalist was also thankful to hear from his two sons, who won judo matches earlier Saturday and told their dad it was his turn to do the family proud again against Fury. Usyk seemed less than appreciative of having Dubois scream in his face about a rematch mere moments after he was announced as the winner of eight rounds across the board Saturday night.
A demonstrative Dubois, obviously out of his shell after knocking out countryman Anthony Joshua on Sept. 21 at a sold-out Wembley Stadium in London, demanded a rematch of a bout he lost by ninth-round knockout in August 2023 in Wroclaw, Poland.
Fury’s future, if the 36-year-old ex-WBC champ doesn’t retire, seems limited, financially anyway, to a still sellable, long-discussed showdown with Joshua, his British rival. Fury and Joshua need each other more than ever now that they’re a combined 0-3 in their past three outings.
Meanwhile, a second fight with Dubois definitely seems sensible for Usyk. The potential problem, of course, is that Dubois (22-2, 22 KOs) must first defeat reemerging former WBO champ Joseph Parker (35-3, 23 KOs) in their 12-round fight for Dubois’ IBF belt February 22 at Kingdom Arena.
Ahead of himself nonetheless, Usyk accepted Dubois’ challenge, if he can top Parker. Usyk — who owns the WBA, WBC, WBO and IBO belts — called for Saudi fight financier Turki Alalshikh to “make me a fight with Daniel Dubois.”
“No problem,” Usyk said. “I am ready. Next fight, no problem.”
The problem in their first fight was that Dubois believes the body blow he landed during the fifth round, which left Usyk rolling around on the canvas, should’ve counted as a knockdown and a knockout. Had that happened, Dubois, not Usyk, would’ve fought Fury for heavyweight supremacy.
As it was, referee Luis Pabon provided Usyk with more than enough time to recover. The former undisputed cruiserweight champion dropped Dubois twice thereafter — three times overall — and seemingly made Dubois quit for the second time as a pro.
That controversy notwithstanding, there was no such discrepancy regarding the official result of Usyk-Fury 2. Usyk simply has proven to be better than Fury.
Martinez, Morley and Robles scored the action accordingly — perfectly, it would seem. After all the evidence we were provided to be skeptical about how we arrived at assigning this judging panel, those that care about boxing should at least be thankful for that.
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