Tyson Fury’s promoter has admitted his fighter failed to “exploit” a key “weakness” in Oleksandr Usyk in May.
Usyk beat Fury via split decision, handing the Briton his first professional loss and becoming the first undisputed heavyweight champion in 24 years.
On 21 December, the pair will clash in Riyadh again, with Fury aiming to take the unified belts from the Ukrainian – who vacated the IBF title in June.
“Usyk has a weakness that Tyson did not exploit like he should have, which is his body,” Fury’s promoter Frank Warren told TNT Sports this week.
“He didn’t exploit that enough, and I’m telling you something: that will be rectified.
“Of course, you have [to be more aggressive]. Even when [Fury] was backing off him... There was quite a bit in the early rounds of that fight, when Tyson was in the corner – and he’s in the corner and he’s tucking up – and Usyk was being aggressive.
"Usyk has a weakness that Tyson didn't exploit enough..."@FrankWarren on the improvements Tyson Fury needs to make in the rematch...
— Boxing on TNT Sports (@boxingontnt) December 9, 2024
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“But what Usyk does when he’s got you like that, is he stands square on. That’s when [Fury] was clipping him with that uppercut; he caught him every time with that.”
In Usyk’s previous fight before facing Fury in May, he stopped Daniel Dubois – another of Warren’s boxers – after recovering from a controversial low blow.
Warren believed that the punch was actually a legal body shot, and that Usyk should have been given a 10 count by the referee – not time to recover.
Since then, Dubois has won three fights in a row, most recently knocking out Anthony Joshua in September. With that result, Dubois retained the IBF title, which he obtained when it was vacated by Usyk.
At the time that Usyk gave up the belt, Dubois was interim IBF champion, thus the latter was elevated to regular champion.
