Usyk outlasts Fury to become undisputed heavyweight champion

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

Oleksandr Usyk had the best day of his boxing career after beating Tyson Fury to become the undisputed king of the heavyweight division on May 19, 2024, in Saudi Arabia.

Usyk scored a nail-biting split decision victory as two of the official match judges gave the bout to him, 115-112, 114-113, while the other gave the win to Fury, 114-113.

With the massive victory, Usyk became the first man to defeat Fury in his entire professional boxing career and is now the World Boxing Council (WBC), World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Organization (WBO), and the International Boxing Federation (IBF) heavyweight champion of the sport.

Usyk bucked another slow start after allowing Fury to dictate the tempo of the fight when they settled for a jab and straight exchange in the first three rounds.

Carrying a wide advantage with his reach, Fury edged Usyk in the scorecards in the early part of the fight when his jabs started to connect at will.

Usyk had his first moments of the fight in the third after cutting through his desired distance to negate the reach advantage of Fury.

As the next rounds went Fury’s way after putting on a hitting clinic, Usyk scored a much-needed bounce-back frame in the ninth when the referee had a standing 10-count just before the bell rang.

In the final minute of the ninth round, Usyk hurt Fury with a barrage of overhand left-hand hooks, leaving him in a wobbly state and was about to go down on the canvas but the ropes played a huge part in saving him.

After the ninth, Usyk just stepped on the gas pedal and clinched all the championship rounds to pull off the come-from-behind victory.

With the impressive victory, Usyk just improved his professional record to 22 wins, 14 knockouts, without a single loss while Fury dropped to 34 wins, 24 knockouts, and a loss.