Oleksandr Usyk defeated Tyson Fury by a split decision to win the undisputed heavyweight championship Saturday at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
One judge had Fury winning, 114-113, but the other two scored it for Usyk, 115-112 and 114-113.
The difference was a standing knockdown, the result of a huge left hand and follow-up flurry, in Round 9 which was a 10-8 round for Usyk.
You can read a full report here.
ROUND 12
Good, competitive final round, as both men had good moments. Usyk probably took the round, though. He dictated the pace, was the busier fighter and landed more eye-catching punches. That’s what he did in the second half of the fight, which could be enough to have his hand raised.
ROUND 11
Competitive round but Usyk is landing the cleaner shots. He might’ve won the fight in the past several rounds. One more round.
ROUND 10
Usyk probably won the round but he also might’ve blown a big opportunity by not attacking Fury aggressively after hurting him so badly in the previous round. Fury seems to have recovered and was actually competitive in that round.
ROUND 9
Wow! Huge left from Usyk in the final seconds hurt Fury badly. And he followed with a barrage of follow-up power shots, which resulted in a knockdown while Fury was still on his feet. It’s unbelievable that Fury never actually went down.
ROUND 8
Usyk is definitely back in the fight. He outworked Fury that round, including the biggest punches of the round. Now Fury seems to be a little off kilter, which is remarkable given his domination of the previous rounds. Usyk is special.
ROUND 7
Fury took his foot off the gas that round, which opened the door for Usyk to get some good work done. The Ukrainian is still attacking. And he landed a few eye-catching shots, which got Fury’s attention and gave Usyk some confidence. Fury landed a few hard shots himself.
ROUND 6
All Fury, who is in complete control. He is landing almost at will against a brilliant boxer, connecting on a number of bombs to both the head and body. Usyk can’t figure out how to get out of the way or land his own shots. Usyk looks lost.
ROUND 5
Big round for Fury. He absolutely pounded Usyk to the body, which seemed to take something out of him. He wasn’t quite as aggressive, wasn’t quite as confident. Fury is working beautiful behind his jab. Has he taken control of the fight?
ROUND 4
Good back and forth action, as both men are having their good moments. However, it seems clear that Fury is landing the hardest punches. He certainly got Usyk’s attention a few times. Fury is clowning a lot but he’s also doing good work.
ROUND 3
Another competitive round. Usyk continues to take the fight to Fury but he really isn’t getting much done. Meanwhile, Fury continues to jab and he landed the biggest shot of the round, a right hand in the final 30 seconds. Is Fury finding his groove?
ROUND 2
Good, competitive round. Usyk started well, landing a hard left seconds after the bell. And he was the aggressor most of the round. Fury continued to jab, however/ And he landed some accurate power shots in the final minute.
ROUND 1
The opening round was a jab fest, with both men targeting mostly the body. Neither man threw many power shots, although Usyk landing a wide left. That was essentially a feel-out round.
***
Jai Opetaia of Australia survived a late rally to defeat Mairis Briedis by a one-sided decision and reclaim his IBF cruiserweight title in a rematch of their June 2022 fight, which Opetaia won by decision to win his belt originally.
The official scores were 117-111, 116-112 and 116-112.
For nine-plus rounds Opetaia (25-0, 19 KOs) methodically outboxed and outworked his rival, who hadn’t fought since their first meeting. Briedis (28-3, 20 KOs) was resilient — taking everything the champ threw at him — but he couldn’t keep pace with his talented 28-year-old opponent and took many punishing blows.
However, the tide turned in Round 10 .Briedis stunned Opetaia with a perfect right uppercut in that frame and continued to take the fight to Opetaia in the final two words, breaking Opetaia’s nose and landing a number of eye-catching shots.
The problem for Briedis was that he had given away too many rounds to catch Opetaia on the cards.
Opetaia was forced to vacate his title in December when he fought Ellis Zorro instead of Briedis, who was his mandatory challenger at that time.
***
Anthony Cacace of Northern Ireland knocked out Joe Cordina of Wales in the eighth round to take Cordina’s 1BF 130-pound title, the first of the Irishman’s career. The official time of the stoppage was :39.
Cacace (22-1, 8 KOs) pounded Cordina (17-1, 9 KOs) most of the fight. However, the turning point came in Round 3. Cacace rocked Cordina with left hook after referee Bob Williams instructed the boxers to stop fighting, which was a controversial moment. The Irishman connected on another hook moments later and then used a right uppercut followed by a another right to put Cordina down and hurt him.
Cacace dominated after that, landing big shots almost at will. He finally ended matters when he connected on a hard right and followed with a flurry of blows, which convinced Williams to stop the fight.
Cacace, 35, has won seven consecutive fights since Martin Ward outpointd him in 2017.
Cordina was making the third defense of the title he won by stopping Kenichi Ogawa in the second round in June 2022.
***
Agit Kabayel of Germany stopped fellow contender Frank Sanchez of Cuba in the seventh round of a scheduled 12-round heavyweight fight. The official time of the stoppage was 2:33.
Kabayel (25-0, 17 KOs) put Sanchez (24-1, 17 KOs) down twice in the final round, both times the result of body shots.
Sanchez fought with a brace on his right knee.
***
Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk are scheduled to fight for the undisputed heavyweight championship on DAZN Pay-Per-View Saturday at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) owns the WBC belt while Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs) is the IBF, WBA and WBO champ.
Fury on Friday weighed in at 262 pounds, his lightest since he came in at 254½ for his fight against Otto Wallin in 2019. Usyk weighed a career-high 223½.
Also on the card:
- Jai Opetaia vs. Mairis Breidis, cuiserweights (for vacant IBF title)
- Joe Cordina vs. Anthony Cacace junior lightweights (for Cordina’s IBF title)
- Sergey Kovalev vs. Robin Safar, cruiserweights
- Agit Kabayel vs. Frank Sanchez, heavyweights
- Mark Chamberlain vs. Joshua Wahab, lightweights
The featured portion of the show is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT. (main event later in the show).
Boxing Junkie will post round-by-round analysis of the main event and results of the featured bouts, as well as a brief summary, immediately after the fights end. Simply return to this post and refresh when the time comes.
Full coverage – detailed fight stories, analysis and more – will follow on separate posts the night of the card and the following day.
Enjoy the fights!
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