It is widely believed that Tyson Fury, the former WBC heavyweight champion, needs to take bigger risks and play more aggressively in his rematch with WBA/WBC/WBO champion Oleksandr Usyk on December 21 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) fought too passively in his first fight with Usyk on May 18, hanging on the ropes, showing off and getting beat by the hard-working Ukrainian talent in a 12-round split decision loss in Riyadh.
The need for a fundamental overhaul of coaching
Although Fury, his team and steadfast fans believe he won the fight, the two judges who worked the fight and most people who watched the fight did not share that misguided view.
Fury lost and should have been knocked out in the ninth round if not for the referee saving him by giving a weird, bizarre score to eight that made no sense. Fortunately, this weird decision did not change the final result of the fight because if it had, the fans would have been very livid.
Some believe Fury needs to get rid of his trainers, SugarHill Steward and Andy Lee, to find good trainers who can work on the flaws in his game. Most would agree that Fury was a better fighter when he was trained by Peter Fury and Ben Davison. He was more mobile, more cunning, and less simple to hit. He didn’t fool around and didn’t get hit as often.
SugarHill Limitations
SugarHill’s main contribution to Fury’s game – the clinch and leaning – has run its course and has only proven useful in fights against Deontay Wilder and British veterans Dillian Whyte and Derek Chisora.
It seems SugarHill, out of ideas, is useless to Fury and needs to pick a world class trainer to fix his game in time for the rematch with Usyk. Fury is now mega opulent and can afford the best trainer money can buy considering his huge net worth.
SugarHill’s ideas of leaning and brutality tactics were helpful against Wilder, but they won’t work against Usyk. He tried them recently and they were a complete failure.
There is no elite-level trainer that Fury cannot afford now, and he needs to do so soon because if he loses to Usyk again, the Anthony Joshua fight will lose all interest.
It would no longer be for the undisputed and Fury would look pathetic if he was 0-2 in his last two fights. His Excellency has made it clear that he will still fight Joshua regardless of the outcome of his fight with Usyk, but Tyson has his pride and it will eat him up inside if he fights in such conditions.
“SugarHill Steward and Andy Lee are a great combination. Both men have a lot of skill, a lot of knowledge and a lot of variety,” said boxing analyst Gareth A. Davies Kingdom of Boxing on whether Tyson Fury should abandon his current training team and start with a modern crew for his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk on December 21.
I don’t see anything significant that Lee and Sugarhill have added to Fury’s game that any coach could teach him. How solid is it to show a fighter how to lean in, fight, and attack brutally?
“Tyson Fury has to come out and put on a different kind of performance against Oleksandr Usyk in December in their rematch. He can beat Oleksandr Usyk. I think Usyk is the marginal favorite going into their second fight.
“The first time he won by twelve rounds” [by a twelve round split decision on May 18th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia]. Fury has the right attitude. He needs to come at him and come at him solid,” Gareth said.
It doesn’t matter if Fury won the 12th round. He lost the fight to Usyk and should have been knocked out in the ninth. For Fury fans to try to find solace in his defeat by saying he should have won the 12th round means nothing. He lost and got beaten up good.
“He needs to take more risks in the second fight. I still think it will be a close, close fight. I wouldn’t change [training] team [for Fury]. But from what Shane has said, they are quite cheerful with Andy Lee and SugarHill Steward,” said Davies.
If Fury sticks with Lee and SugarHill until the bitter end, he needs to be prepared to lose every fight until retirement, because that’s what will happen. Aggressive fighting won’t work against Usyk because every time he attacks, he gets lit up. He needs mobility.
“I think changing it now is probably not a good idea. I thought Tyson won the last round anyway. I had Tyson on the scorecards the last round. I don’t agree with everything he said about Oleksandr Usyk; he’s got an amateur style of fighting,” Davies said.
A change of coach is necessary for Fury; he should have done it immediately after the loss to Usyk. He should have taken a broom and swept SugarHill and Lee out of the gym. Fury needs modern ideas and he won’t get them if he keeps his current coaches. As the saying goes, “Garbage in, garbage out.” He’s getting hit too much now and doesn’t have the chin to take the punches, even against a smaller heavyweight like Usyk.
Fury needs to get rid of these two trainers, drop over 30 pounds and work on his fitness to get back to the form he showed after beating Klitschko in 2015.
Fury’s attitude
“I like his attitude going into the second fight. I want him to win. I want to see him fight Anthony Joshua. I want to see him fight Anthony Joshua for the undisputed title,” Gareth said.
Davies says he likes Fury’s attitude, but he hasn’t fought since the Usyk loss, so how would he know? Is he just going by Fury’s comments? He was talking a lot before the Usyk fight in May, and look what happened?
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