The judges’ scorecards for Oleksandr Usyk’s historic victory over Tyson Fury have been revealed.
Usyk came out on top via split decision in Riyadh on Saturday night, edging past his rival on points after rocking him in the ninth round.
He had started the slower of the two, with Fury showboating as he controlled the opening rounds of the fight.
But Usyk came back into it and won a number of the later rounds to claim victory, with it revealed that all he needed to do was avoid a knockdown to secure the win going into the final round.
Manuel Oliver Palermo of Spain, Craig Metcalfe of Canada and Mike Fitzgerald of the United States were the judges for the bout, with their scores revealed post fight.
The scorecards from Oleksandr Usyk’s historic victory over Tyson Fury have been revealed
Usyk won via split decision in a close contest that proved to be a heavyweight fight of two halves in Riyadh
The scorecards revealed how the Ukranian had already won the bout on points going into the final round
All three judges gave the opening round to Usyk, before Palermo and Metcalfe gave round two to Fury, with Usyk winning 10-9 according to Fitzgerald.
Palermo have the third and fourth rounds to Usyk, before five, six and seven were awarded to Fury as he started to dominate.
Metcalfe, meanwhile, awarded round three to Usyk, then four to seven to Fury, with Fitzgerald giving rounds three to seven to the loser.
Usyk then won the next four on the Spaniard’s card, including the 10-8 round in the ninth, meaning the card was out the reach of the ‘Gypsy King’ going into the last round.
Palmermo awarded Usyk the win overall by 115 points to 112.
Metcalfe, the only judge to award Fury the win, gave rounds eight to 10 to Usyk, including the knockdown, before the last two went to Fury, giving him what the Canadian judged to be a narrow victory, though his two colleagues disagreed with his take.
Those two cards were read out first by Michael Buffer, before Fitzgerald’s was revealed. He gave Usyk rounds eight to 11, meaning he had already won on the scorecards before the final round – bar a knockdown – which he awarded to Fury.
Fury revealed after the fight that he thought he won and that people backed Usyk because ‘his country is at war’
After the fight, Fury told DAZN: ‘I believe I won that fight, and I believe he won a few of the rounds, but I won the majority of them.’
He added: ‘I believe we both put on a good fight – best we could do. And, you know, his country is at war. People are siding with the country at war.’
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