Tyson Fury vows to be «more focused» during his unified heavyweight championship rematch with Oleksandr Usyk on Dec. 21 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, he told ESPN on Wednesday.
Fury, 36, played to the crowd and taunted Usyk multiple times during the first half of their May fight, which Usyk won via split decision.
The pivotal moment of the bout came in Round 9, when Ukraine's Usyk unloaded 14 unanswered punches that resulted in a knockdown and a 10-8 round that was the difference on the scorecards.
England's Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) was ahead on all three cards heading into the eighth round. And Fury believes he deserved the decision after 12 rounds, too. He said he has rewatched the fight literally «hundreds of times,» but he also knows the fight was close enough.
«I always scored myself winning it, so, but I'm not a judge, am I?» said Fury, ESPN's No. 2 heavyweight. "… I haven't made any adjustments and that's the truth. The only adjustments will be on fight night where I keep more focused and less clowning in the ring.
«I did a lot of showboating, a lot of messing around — more than I've ever done before, actually — against supposedly my toughest opponent. I did a lot of f---ing around and it ended up costing me.»
Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) is ESPN's No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer and No. 1 heavyweight. The Olympic gold medalist was also the undisputed champion at cruiserweight before he collected all four titles with his win over Fury.
Fury is no stranger to return bouts. «The Gypsy King» fought Derek Chisora three times — a decision win followed by two TKO victories. His far more noteworthy trilogy, of course, was against Deontay Wilder.
Fury was floored twice by Wilder during their 2018 meeting that was ruled a draw, only for Fury
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Derek Chisora