The full judges’ scorecards from Saturday night’s epic showdown between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk have now been revealed in full.
Usyk defeated Fury in the biggest heavyweight fight for more than two decades in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh, becoming the first undisputed champion of the division for 25 years in the process.
The Ukrainian made an impressive start to the high-profile bout, but needed to weather his showboating opponent’s comeback in the middle rounds.
He came within a whisker of an emphatic stoppage in round nine as he scored a knockdown with Fury deemed by referee Mark Nelson to be being held up by the ropes after a savage Usyk onslaught, then saved by the bell before succeeding in getting his legs back underneath him.
Oleksandr Usyk SD Tyson Fury official judges' scorecards… pic.twitter.com/IACOHyuhr2
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Usyk finished impressively, but the margin of victory seemed much closer than people were expecting as he ended up sealing a narrow split decision on the cards.
Two judges, Spain’s Manuel Oliver Palomo and American Mike Fitzgerald, both scored the fight in favour of Usyk, 115-112 and 114-113 respectively.
However, a third judge, Craig Metcalfe of Canada, returned a final score of 114-113 for Fury.
The full scorecards have now been shown, with all three judges giving the opening round to Usyk.
Palomo and Metcalfe both gave the second to Fury, though Fitzgerald had Usyk 2-0 up.
The tables were turned in the third as Fitzgerald went for Fury and his two fellow judges opted for Usyk, while Palomo gave the fourth to Usyk while the others both went for Fury.
All three judges awarded the fifth, sixth and a close seventh round to a resurgent Fury, before Usyk crucially wrestled back some momentum by getting the eighth on all three cards.
The pivotal ninth round was a 10-8 Usyk affair across the board with the knockdown, with the Ukrainian also getting a clean sweep in the 10th as he stayed cool and inflicted more damage without recklessly chasing the stoppage after coming so close to a knockout just before.
Palomo and Fitzgerald also gave the penultimate 11th round to Usyk, while Metcalfe had it in favour of Fury as he tried to fight back.
All three judges felt Fury had finished the stronger in a pulsating final round, with Usyk just doing enough in the end to claim a historic split-decision victory and inflict the first loss of Fury’s illustrious 36-fight professional career.
