Fury V Usyk 2 tonight! Prediction on the big match

Tonight brings us the long awaited rematch between the 2 best heavyweights on the planet in a fight that is too close to call, but I will break it down and give my opinion on how it could play out….

If we go back to the first fight 7 months ago, Fury may have had the fight won in his head after 5 or 6 rounds while he was filming and a mixture of Fury’s performance and Usyk’s ability to adapt in a fight was Fury’s undoing in this occasion.

Ultimately the crucial moment in that fight was the 9th round, which Usyk dominated and ended with a 10-8 round in Usyk’s favor. If this round had been 10 – 9 for Usyk, the fight would have ended in a majority draw. It’s always about narrow margins at the pinnacle of any sport and I believe Fury can adjust and correct the mistakes to get the job done tonight.

Make no mistake, Usyk is a generational great and is the only fighter who hasn’t been fazed by any of Fury’s mind games, which this time has resulted in a more focused and cool version of Fury. All games are over and this is a very different Tyson Fury.

There is no doubt that Fury has a great boxing IQ, as does Usyk, however, in terms of rematches, I am heavily influenced by Fury making the changes needed to come back and improve more than Usyk. 2 notable rematches that saw huge improvement with the first in 2009 against John Mcdermott where Fury won a razor thin decision and many thought he might have lost.

In the rematch which was not immediate, but 3 fights and 9 months later, Fury won with a convincing 9th round stoppage. The most notable rematch was the second fight with Wilder. The first fight had Fury’s vulnerable recovery from a 12th round knockdown that ended in a draw, and like the Mcdermott rematch, Fury would rematch with Wilder 3 fights afterwards. The second fight with Wilder ended with Fury destroying him with a seventh-round stoppage.

This rematch is different for several reasons. Usyk is a cut above both Mcdermott and Wilder. This is an immediate rematch and both fighters are arguably past their prime and reaching the end of their careers. Make no mistake, however, as many of the great heavyweight wars, including The Thrilla in Manilla in 1975 between Ali and Frazier in their trilogy, saw both fighters past their prime and nearing the end of their careers, this however does not It’s had no impact on becoming one of the biggest fights in heavyweight history and I think this one could live up to expectations as well.

If Usyk were to win then I think this might be the last time we see both fighters in the ring again, what more could they do. Fury would be coming off consecutive defeats, Usyk was unified champion in 2 weight divisions and has already beaten 2 top contenders including current IBF world champion Daniel Dubois and former world champion Anthony Joshua.

A Fury win would open up the division for a trilogy with Usyk, a huge fight with Anthony Joshua or another unification fight with Dubois V winner Parker, although if Parker wins it would be another story as Parker and Fury are very close , but the point remains that a Fury win will generate more money than a Usyk win and that’s a fact.

How this match can be won is once again very difficult to establish and a very interesting statistic comes to mind. Usyk has never been officially knocked down in his professional career to date, however, he was knocked down by unified light heavyweight world champion Artur Beterbiev with a cruel body shot among the amateurs in 2011. This knockdown occurred in the final round and the other interesting stat is that Fury won by knockout in every single round except round 12.

My prediction is a 12th round stoppage for Fury as this stat screams at me and I think Fury will want to leave it all in the ring this time.

I see him going on points, but I want to make a bold prediction and will put a few pounds on Fury by 12th round KO.

What do readers predict…..?