We are now just over three months away from Oleksandr Usyk vs Tyson Fury 2, and the debate surrounding their epic first meeting still rages on.
On May 18 in Saudi Arabia, Fury suffered his first professional defeat as Usyk fought his way to an incredible split decision victory to become boxing’s first undisputed world heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis back in 1999.
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‘The Gypsy King’ (34-1-1) had appeared to be en route to a convincing victory as he boxed beautifully through the middle portion of a fascinating duel. But then the wheels came off as Usyk (22-0) launched a thrilling rally to almost knock out the British superstar.
There was much focus on the apparent mixed messages in Fury’s corner during the crucial final rounds, and top heavyweight Dereck Chisora believes it highlighted what could be a major issue moving forward.
Fury teamed up with Kronk Gym disciple Javan SugarHill Steward ahead of his rematch victory over Deontay Wilder in 2020, and SugarHill has headed up his corner ever since. But Chisora believes that partnership is now not what it once was.
Tyson Fury and SugarHill
He told the talkBOXING podcast: “Him and SugarHill Steward – that relationship is kind of dying down. Because when they got together, they were listening to each other.”
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Chisora spoke about the optics from Fury’s corner late in that Usyk fight, claiming: “They were all in panic. It was not because there was loads of voices, they were all in panic.
“They knew they were losing the fight so they figured they had to start saying something because he was not listening to SugarHill and he was not listening to his dad.”
Chisora doesn’t believe that the relationship with SugarHill was the only issue as Fury slipped to defeat – he believes that deep cut over the eye which saw the initial February date postponed also played a big part.
‘Massive’ cut played a part
“I don’t think Tyson was 100 per cent when he walked into that ring. He had a massive cut, he didn’t wanna get fined for missing the fight. He didn’t spar the way he wanted to spar, and he was under-prepared, under-prepared for that fight.
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“The confidence was not there. And you’ve got to realise, he was mucking around for the first four or five rounds because the confidence was not there.”
