Tyson Fury emphatically dismissed the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) judging in boxing after his latest defeat by Oleksandr Usyk.
Saturday night’s high-profile heavyweight title rematch in Riyadh was unique as it featured the first-ever AI judge, who scored the bout in an unofficial capacity in an intriguing experiment powered by The Ring Magazine and Turki Alalshikh, chairman of the General Entertainment Authority in Saudi Arabia.
“I am the first-ever AI boxing judge,” the humanoid AI judge said in a clip released ahead of fight night. “And I am here to bring fairness to the ring.
“I analyse every round, every move, and every decisive moment during the fight,” it said.
But any hope Fury may have had of seeking solace in the unofficial scoring of the AI judge after both he and promoter Frank Warren lamented the 116-112 scorecards returned in Usyk’s favour by all three human judges on the night - Gerardo Martinez, Patrick Morley and Ignacio Robles - proved in vain.
The AI judge actually scored the fight to Usyk by an even wider margin - 118-112 - and gave Fury just two rounds in total out of 12, the second and the fifth.
It scored the first and last rounds as level at 10-10, with all eight other rounds going to Usyk.
Asked for his thoughts on the future of AI judging in boxing after being informed of that one-sided score, which did not contribute to the result, Fury said in his post-fight press conference: “Well by the review of that, absolutely s**t.
“Here’s one: f**k all the computers. Keep the humans going, more jobs for humans and less jobs for computers. And f**k electric cars too, while we’re at it.”
