Jai Opetaia says he would have liked to see Tyson Fury do more in his loss to unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk on December 21 in Riyadh. He had hoped that former WBC champion Fury (34-2-1, 24 KOs) would have shown a “different version” of himself in the second fight against Usyk (23-0, 14 KOs), but he did not could do there.
Fury, 36, was different from the first fight. It was much, much worse and it looked like he didn’t even try to win the fight. It could be that Fury, with his Fagin look adopted from the movie Oliver Twist, was afraid of being defeated. So, he played it safe and didn’t show Fagin’s ruthless and cunning ways to manipulate his way to victory.
The scores were 116-112 x 3 for Usyk. As in the first fight, Fury refuses to accept his defeat and complains that he deserves the victory. He made a mess of himself in the press conference after the fight, saying: “I believed until the day I died that I had won the fight.” It’s a shame that his promoters didn’t push him to close his ice. It seemed like a classic example of a poor sport in absolute denial. I would have scored 118-110 for Usyk. It wasn’t even close.
Analysis of Opetaia
“I wanted a different version of Fury. I wanted him to do more, but I guess it was the same kind of thing. Usyk is just an animal. He’s a beast,” Jai Opetaia told The Land of Stompingreacts to Oleksandr Usyk’s victory over Tyson Fury in their rematch on December 21.
“He’s a choked rabbit. He just doesn’t stop. It’s hard to beat a big fighter like that. You have to take your hat off to Usyk because you can’t fake this stuff. It’s hard work to be able to box like that for 12 rounds. It’s a hard work. So you have to be able to respect that.
“If it happens, it happens. I’m still open,” Opetaia said when asked if he would be interested in fighting Usyk if he returns to the cruiserweight division. I would never put down a fight like that. It’s a fight I would take with both hands 100%.
There was nothing Fury could do to win the rematch. What he needed was a working time machine to bring back the young 2015 version of himself for the Usyk fight. This old version couldn’t do it.
“Right now, I’m focused on the eight. I have a job to do. Let’s do it,” said Opetaia about his title defense against #10 IBF contender David Nyika.
