Jai Opetaia says he wishes Tyson Fury had done more in his loss to unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk on Dec. 21 in Riyadh. He hoped that former WBC champion Fury (34-2-1, 24 KOs) would show a “different version” of himself in the second fight with Usyk (23-0, 14 KOs), but he was unable to do so.
Fury (36) was different from the first fight. He was far, far worse and it looked like he wasn’t even trying to win the fight. It’s possible that Fury, with his adopted Fagin look from the Oliver Twist movie, was afraid of being knocked out. So he played it safe and didn’t show Fagin’s ruthless and cunning qualities to manipulate his way to victory.
The results were 116-112 x 3 for Usik. As in the first fight, Fury refuses to accept his defeat and complains that he deserves to win. He made a mess of himself at the post-fight press conference, saying: “I believe until the day I die that he won the fight.” It’s a shame the promoters didn’t muzzle him to close their sack. He looked like a classic example of bad sportsmanship in complete denial. I scored 118-110 for Usik. It wasn’t even close.
Opetaja’s analysis
“I wanted a different version of Fury. I wanted him to do more, but I guess it was the same kind of thing. Usik is just an animal. He is a beast,” said Jay Opetaia The Stomping Groundreacting to Alexander Usyk’s victory over Tyson Fury in their December 21 rematch.
“He’s a little rabbit.” He just doesn’t stop. It’s hard to beat such a great fighter. You have to take your hat off to Usika because you can’t fake that stuff. It’s hard work to be able to box like that for 12 rounds. It’s hard work. So you have to be able to respect that.
“If it happens, it happens.” I’m always open to it,” Opetaja said when asked if he would be interested in fighting Usyk if he returns to the cruiserweight division. I would never put down a fight like that. It’s a fight I would take with both hands 100%.
Fury couldn’t do anything to win the rematch. He needed a working time machine to bring back the young version of himself from 2015 to fight Usik. This old version couldn’t do that.
“Right now I’m focused on eighth.” I have a job to do. Let’s do it,” Opetaia said of his title defense against No. 10 IBF contender David Niik.
