Mayweather: Fury ‘didn’t take enough risks’ in Usyk Loss

Jeff Mayweather says he believes Tyson Fury did enough to win a close decision against Oleksandr Usyk in their rematch in Riyadh on Saturday. He thinks Fury (34-2-1, 24 KOs) did more than unified heavyweight champion Usyk (23-0, 12 KOs) in the fight to earn a 12-round decision.

Jeff doesn’t think it was an exciting fight, labeling it as “mediocre.” Usyk won a 12-round unanimous decision with scores of 116-112, 116-112 and 116-112. Fury squandered his chances of winning by doing nothing in the championship rounds when the fight was still up for grabs.

Weight and performance

The weight Fury put on slowed him down, making it difficult for him to fight as hard as he needed to win. He came into the first fight weighing 262 pounds, but he made up for it by bulking up to 281 pounds for the rematch.

Fury was so big that he had to raise his trunk to minimize his stomach and leave a smaller target area for Usyk’s punches.

“The fight was extremely close. It could go either way, but I’m going to lean a little bit towards Tyson,” Jeff Mayweather said on his YouTube channel, believing Tyson Fury did enough to deserve victory over unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday night.

«On alternate shifts, him [Usyk] would do well, but not as much as Tyson did. Usyk is taking over at heavyweight. They all get beaten by Usyk. So probably not,” Jeff said when asked if Fury and Anthony Joshua have a chance to become world champions again.

“I don’t think anyone wants to see a third fight [between Fury and Usyk]. The first meeting for me was very nice. The second match was mediocre. Neither did much. Basically, I think both guys were fighting safely, and that’s probably why Tyson didn’t fight. He was fighting too confidently.

If Turki Alalashikh wants to set up a trilogy between Fury and Usyk, he can do it. Fans won’t want to see it. With Fury coming off two defeats, it’s not the ideal time for Turki to compare him to Anthony Joshua. Fury needs a win or two against a solid contender to redeem himself and boost his stock.

Turki should tell Fury that if he wants to get the retirement payday against Joshua, he has to earn it by fighting Daniel Dubois and Martin Bakole. Let him go through the fire first to get that mega-payout.

Fury’s cautious approach

“He didn’t take enough risks. I do not believe. Everyone gets beaten by a lightweight,” Mayweather said when asked if Joshua, Fury and Daniel Dubois could hang with Lennox Lewis, George Foreman and Mike Tyson.”

Fury appeared to be afraid of getting hurt in his rematch with Usyk last Saturday, and wouldn’t take any chances. He didn’t want to be eliminated. So, he played it safe, went through the motions, and got his $75 million payout without putting his skin at risk.

It wouldn’t end well for Fury, Joshua or Dubois to clash with a top-tier Lewis, Foreman or Mike Tyson. If there was a way to teleport them back to when those kids were young, it would be interesting to see, but none of them would fare well against those types of fighters. Fury would be the most vulnerable of the three because he can’t punch and his moves or strikes wouldn’t work.

“I don’t think so,” Mayweather said of whether Fury can be considered an all-time great. “Some might think so. I really like Tyson Fury and think he’s extremely talented for a guy his size. But if you get beaten twice by a cruiserweight, you can’t say much about it. I think it is [Fury] a Hall of Fame.”

Fury is definitely NOT a Hall of Famer and obviously not an all-time great. He didn’t beat anyone except an old Wladimir Klitschko in his forties, who was out of range, and Deontay Wilder. We saw how good he is with his recent losses to Joseph Parker and Zhilei Zhang. Those losses took the shine off Fury’s victories over Deontay while fighting him.