The judges’ scorecards have been revealed in full after the captivating heavyweight title rematch between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury.
Usyk made it back-to-back points wins over his great rival back in Riyadh on Saturday night, seven months on from their first bout in which he edged a narrow split decision to become the first undisputed champion of boxing’s glamour division since Lennox Lewis almost 25 years ago.
This time the result was more decisive on the cards, with the Ukrainian - who relinquished his IBF belt and undisputed status soon after the first fight - retaining his unified WBA (Super), WBC, WBO, IBO and The Ring titles by unanimous decision to stay undefeated and move on to 23-0 (14 knockouts), further cementing his status as an all-time great of the sport.
It was a second successive defeat for Fury, having failed to avenge his first-ever professional loss from back in May to leave him facing questions over his future in boxing and a possible retirement.
Fury and his team were left hugely frustrated by the result, which saw all three judges on the night - Gerardo Martinez, Patrick Morley and Ignacio Robles - score the bout 116-112 in Usyk’s favour.
Fury said he thought he had won the fight by at least three rounds, while promoter Frank Warren also felt that his fighter had done enough to claim victory while also lamenting how all three judges can only have found him four rounds each.
Warren’s Queensberry promotions have now shown the scorecards in full, with Martinez and Morley both giving the first round to Fury but Robles - a late fill-in for the ill Fernando Barbosa, with a coin toss seeing him elevated above Steve Weisfeld after both camps were reportedly split on a replacement - scoring it for Usyk.
That was flipped for round two as Martinez and Morley gave it to Usyk and Robles to Fury, while Martinez and Robles both had the third to Usyk as Morley scored it for Fury.
All three judges were in agreement on the next five rounds, giving Fury the fourth and fifth and Usyk the sixth, seventh and eighth.
Martinez and Morley had the ninth for Usyk, with Robles awarding it to Fury on his card. Perhaps the most debate among boxing fans will come with the scoring of round 10, with many believing at the time that it was one of Fury’s strongest of the entire fight but all three judges feeling Usyk was superior.
They all also unanimously gave an impressive round 11 to Usyk, while Morley and Robles both gave the last round to the champion too as Martinez scored it for Fury. Martinez and Robles both had the fight level halfway through at 57-57, while Morley had Fury up 58-56.
There was also an AI judge in operation for the first time in Riyadh on Saturday night, scoring the bout in an unofficial capacity. The AI judge scored the fight even more emphatically for Usyk, 118-112.
In terms of the final punch statistics on the night, Usyk threw 423 and landed 179, while Fury landed only 144 of 509 shots attempted.
