Can Fury overcome his “glass jaw” to defeat Usyk?

Shakur Stevenson is giving Tyson Fury the edge to defeat unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday night in their rematch in Saudi Arabia.

Shakur’s prediction

WBC lightweight champion Stevenson says Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) will win if he is “fit” and stays “focused.” Shakur gives Fury a 55-45 chance to defeat WBA, WBC and WBO champion Usyk.

The bearded Fury appears fit for him, but that may not make a difference. He was in form the last time he fought Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) on May 18, and still lost the fight via 12-round split decision.

Fury’s problem is not his conditioning. it’s yours glass jaw of his three fights with Deontay Wilder. He can no longer take a punch, and Usyk will expose that weakness on Saturday, just as he did in their previous fight when he had him on his feet in the ninth round in Riyadh.

As cool as Usyk is, bro, he’s very difficult to fight over the course of a 12-round fight. I’m like 55-45 Fury on this one. All Fury has to do is get in shape and stay focused throughout the fight! !

—Shakur Stevenson (@ShakurStevenson) December 16, 2024

Destructive force?

“I’m looking forward to a fight where I’m going to win and where I’m going to be destructive and spiteful,” Tyson Fury told Queensberry Promotionspredicting a victory against Oleksandr Usyk. “I was basically landing at will. They said I couldn’t show up, and then SugarHill (Steward) and I got together and I became a destructive puncher and he started knocking everyone out.”

The opponents Fury has knocked out since teaming up with SugarHill Steward in December 2019 have been nothing special. Fury has since knocked out two British-level heavyweights, and Deontay Wilder, a non-world-class fighter, managed to win his WBC world title through clever matchmaking.

Fury’s knockouts under SugarHill’s watch

– Derek Chisora: *Journeyman
– Dillian Whyte: Ditto
– Deontay Wilder x 2

If Fury had knocked out some of the good heavyweights, like Martin Bakole or Daniel Dubois, then you could say that SugarHill transformed him into a “destructive puncher”, but he has beaten three thickets.

Rationalizing the defeat

“Last time he won this fight by one point, by one round,” Fury said of Usyk. “If it had been in one of those other rounds, I would have gotten it in one of those rounds one through twelve. If the rounds had been identical in the rounds where I won and lost, then it would have been a draw,” Fury said, trying to rationalize.

“If I had gotten any of the other rounds and not gotten 10-8, I would have won it.”