Tyson Fury issues statement following loss to Oleksandr Usyk: “His country is at war, so people are siding with the country at war”

Tyson Fury made some controversial remarks following his split decision loss to Oleksandr Usyk this evening in Saudi Arabia.

Fury (34-1-1) and Usyk (22-0) collided for the undisputed boxing heavyweight world title and the highly anticipated bout absolutely lived up to the billing.

Tyson Fury had most previously competed this past October, where he edged out a hotly debated split decision win over former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou. That victory had marked the Brit’s seventh in a row, as he had previously scored stoppage wins over Derek Chisora, Dillian Whyte and Deontay Wilder respectively.

As for Oleksandr Usyk, the Ukranian champion had last competed in August of last year, where he earned a ninth-round knockout victory over Daniel Dubois. That win was preceded by back-t0-back victories over Anthony Joshua where he claimed and then defended the WBA, WBO and IBF belts.

Tonight’s undisputed heavyweight title fight proved to be an absolutely thrilling twelve-round war. Oleksandr Usyk was able to get off to a strong start in rounds one and two, but Tyson Fury came back strongly to arguably win the next four rounds. However, it was in round eight that Usyk changed the tide back in his favor, this after landing a big left hand that appeared to break Fury’s nose. The very next round the Ukranian was able to drop ‘The Gypsy King’ with a huge combination (see that here). From there, Usyk seemingly went into cruise and control and in the end was awarded what most fans and analysts thought was a much-deserved victory.

Official Result: Oleksandr Usyk defeats Tyson Fury via split decision (115-112, 113-114, 114-113)

Despite being dropped and overwhelmed in the final rounds of the fight, ‘The Gypsy King’ still felt he had done enough to edge out a decision win on the judges’ scorecards.

Tyson Fury shared his disappointment with the judges’ ruling during his post-fight interview and delivered the following controversial comments about why he thinks Oleksandr Usyk wound up getting the nod:

Tyson Fury delivers his first thoughts 🎤👀 pic.twitter.com/c0TByKB7ix

— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) May 18, 2024

“First of all, I want to thank my lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for this fantastic fight with Oleksandr. I believe I won that fight. I believe he won a few of the rounds, but I won the majority of them. And I believe it was… what can you do, one of those fixed decisions in boxing. We both put on a good fight, the best we could do. And you know his country (Ukraine) is at war, so people are siding with the country at war. But make no mistake, I won that fight in my opinion. I will be back. I have a rematch clause.”

How did you score tonight’s Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk fight? Do you think ‘The Gypsy King’ has a legitimate gripe?