John Fury could hardly watch as Tyson Fury suffered his first professional defeat over the weekend. Cameras captured the boxer’s father turning away from the ring in disgust after Oleksandr Usyk was crowned the victor in their heavyweight title fight.
Tyson fell just short of becoming the first undisputed heavyweight champion of the world since 2000, falling to Usyk via split decision. Though one of the judges scored the fight 114-113 in favor of the Brit, the remaining two officials scored it 115-112 and 114-113 for the Ukrainian.
After the scorecards were announced, John appeared dejected and angry with the ruling. He promptly turned away from the celebrations occurring among Usyk and his team, exchanging brief words with one of Tyson’s trainers.
Judging by John’s prior comments, he was likely quite surprised by the outcome of the bout. “One round to undisputed.” While in Tyson’s corner in between Rounds 11 and 12, the 59-year-old implored his son not to make any mistakes, asserting: “One round to undisputed.”
On the heels of the fight, Tyson reaffirmed that his team told him that he’d done enough in the 12 rounds to win. “I thank Oleksandr for the good fight, it was a close fight but I thought I did enough,” he said during the post-fight press conference. “I’m not a judge and I can’t judge a fight while I’m boxing it.
“If they’d said to me before the last round that I was down I would have gone and tried to finish it but everyone in the corner believed we were up. All I had to do was just keep boxing and keep doing what I was doing and I was getting it.”
Fans online quickly slammed Tyson’s dad and his team for giving poor advice in the closing minutes of the bout. “His corner totally misjudged that. Might have been a different situation had they told him he was losing during the later rounds,” one X user wrote, with another adding: “Fury’s dad completely contradicting the head coach.”
Discussing the fight on his YouTube channel, UFC Hall of Famer Michael Bisping placed further blame on John. “People online are saying that the corner work was absolute shambles because John Fury was screaming over the top of SugarHill [Steward],” he began. “John Fury was screaming over the top, so you’re sitting there getting conflicting advice [when] you need a cool, calm, collected corner.
“You can’t have people getting emotional and trying to be heard and be seen on camera,” he continued. “Of course, John Fury is his father and he’s emotionally invested but sometimes you have got to know your place.”
John won’t have to wait long to watch Tyson rematch Usyk. A second face off between the two is already in the works, with the highly anticipated match tentatively scheduled for October 12 or 13 in Saudi Arabia.
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