Tyson Fury Deteriorated Heading Into Rematch With Usyk

Trainer Dave Coldwell says “The best Fury” is now gone at this late stage of Tyson Fury’s long 16-year professional career as he heads into his rematch with unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk on December 21st.

Coldwell believes that Tyson is now depleted, given the punishment the former WBC champion Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) sustained in his three fights against powerful puncher Deontay Wilder and the brutal ninth round against Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) earlier this year on May 18th.

Fury was out on his feet in the ninth round in the Usyk fight, and Coldwell believe that if that had been a different referee, he’d have been knocked out. He feels that if Usyk were the one who was getting hammered like that, the fight would have been stopped. That’s the same view many people have.

The recently turned 36-year-old Fury will be coming into his rematch with Usyk, a battle-torn fighter, punch resistance gone, and vulnerable to the shots he’ll be getting hit with in the rematch on December 21st in Riyadh.

Coldwell feels that Fury’s deterioration from the Wilder fight was masked by the opposition he’d been fighting. After the brutal third fight against Wilder on October 9th, 2021, which saw Fury getting dropped twice, he took three soft opponents in Dillian Whyte, Dereck Chisora, and Francis Ngannou.

The match against Ngannou in October of last year showed that Fury’s punch resistance had been impaired, as he was dropped in the fight and won a controversial 10-round split decision against the novice.

“In Fury’s case, that round nine was pretty brutal. So, we have questions about him. Can he come back from it and what manner,” said trainer Dave Coldwell to Boxing Social about whether Tyson Fury can come back from the damage that he sustained against Oleksandr Usyk earlier this year on May 18th, when he was badly hurt in the ninth round.

That was a clear knockout, or it should have been in the ninth round because Fury got pummeled by Usyk, and it should have been stopped.

“I believe the best of Fury is gone. The Wilder fights. He was getting hit by a big-punching guy. The third Wilder fight was absolutely brutal. Nobody is ever the same after that fight. You get dropped by Wilder. You get dropped by Ngannou, but they’re damaging shots,” said Coldwell.

It’s not just Fury’s punch resistance that is gone. His legs are gone, and movement and reflexes have all slowed down due to age. He’s gotten old, and he appears to have aged well beyond his chronological age of 36.

Some people age faster than others, and Fury is a perfect example of that. He resembled a person in their late 40s or early 50s. Moreover, he’s lost muscle in his upper body that he had during the best years of his career. In the kickoff press conference this week, Fury’s upper body looked scrawny, and his face showed age.

“Then we saw with Usyk as well. Usyk punches hard. I said that at cruiserweight,” said Coldwell. “People say he doesn’t hit hard. He hits hard enough to damage you. At cruiserweight, he had a good knockout record. If he didn’t hit hard, these big heavyweight monsters would walk right through him,” said Coldwell.

Usyk was always a good puncher at cruiserweight, and we saw what he did against Tony Bellew. If a fighter can punch hard at cruiserweight, they’re going to do the same at heavyweight as well.

The head doesn’t change. The left hand that Usyk hurt Fury with in the ninth round would have done the same to any fighter in the division because he loaded up on the shot, and he wasn’t expecting it.