No skilled opponent had defeated Tyson Fury, till Oleksandr Usyk’s sensible show in Could noticed the Ukrainian turn out to be the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.
It was the primary time Fury’s hand hadn’t been raised on the finish of a struggle since Russian beginner Maksim Babanin beat him in 2007.
The Briton’s undefeated report had been an important supply of satisfaction. However going into the rematch, which takes place this Saturday reside on Sky Sports activities Field Workplace, Fury has not dwelt on the loss.
“I was undefeated for 17 years as a boxer. That’s a long time,” Fury informed Sky Sports activities.
“I have never had any ideas about it actually. It hasn’t affected me I have never performed something completely different to what I’d have performed had I received the choice.
“I wouldn’t have done some fancy something different if I’d have got the decision or didn’t. I’ve not really thought about it to be fair. I don’t focus on the past even, I just concentrate on the day in hand.”
However he could not deny the reverse has lent him a brand new edge for the rematch.
He stated: “Sometimes I think about, if I’m going for a run in something, I think about right this [person] has got a decision over me, I want to reverse that in the rematch.
“Clearly I am a competitor, I am aggressive. So I do assume like that.”
Top Rank’s Bob Arum, who co-promotes Fury, sees a fighter fired up by that first defeat. “I feel it actually shook him up and due to this fact he is educated much more severely than he did earlier than,” Arum told Sky Sports.
“In different phrases he all the time educated arduous, however the dedication for this one is much and above what it has been for any struggle aside from possibly the second [Deontay] Wilder struggle.”
Famously, after a controversial attract his first struggle with Wilder, Fury stormed into the American and stopped him of their rematch.
Undercard fighter Isaac Lowe, who since he was a baby has educated alongside Fury and is aware of him higher than most, is satisfied the previous champion will rally from this adversity too.
“Look at his track record, when he’s been put down or whatever, he’s always come back and knocked the other person out,” Lowe informed Sky Sports activities.
“I’m expecting the best version of Tyson Fury. There’s not a hell of a lot different he has to do right. Just minor things, keeping more concentration and keeping focused and I think little tweaks here and there will make a difference in this fight. I expect him to go and do a number this time around.
“Everybody’s written him off all by means of his profession. When he went as much as 30 stone, earlier than he boxed [Wladimir] Klitschko, when the Wilder struggle was, this and that, and he all the time comes again towards the percentages and does it.
“What a stage to do this time around.”
It was a high-pressure, high-level occasion when Fury first fought Usyk. However Fury’s youth offers one other clue as to how he’ll reply to that defeat.
In 2006 Tyson Fury boxed David Value within the North West closing of the ABA nationwide championships. Which may sound like a minor matter, however on the beginner circuit at the moment it was as massive because it may get.
Again then Macaulay McGowan educated with Fury at Jimmy Egan’s beginner boxing membership.
Recalling that second McGowan informed Sky Sports activities: “It was just the North West final. It was massive. Tyson wanted to get on GB. Obviously David Price was an international, Commonwealth gold medallist. He was going to the Olympics. Suddenly this 17, 18-year-old kid’s come out of nowhere, started giving him rubbish in the Boxing News and all that.
“It got here out a few weeks later that David Value wasn’t even bothered concerning the ABAs however then he’d seen Tyson give him garbage within the Boxing Information.
“It was a big fight. It was like an undisputed world title fight, I remember it today. He wanted the 2008 Olympic spot and he was given his chance to prove it.”
Fury misplaced that call to Value. “He was a bit down, [thinking:] ‘I’m never going to do that, I’m never going to do this.’ Then he’s back in the gym, and he’s training. He gets that bit between his teeth and he goes even harder,” McGowan remembered.
“He won the ABAs and went pro after that. It’s like water off a duck’s back to him. He just cracked on. Don’t get me wrong he has his low points, he’s dead down, disappointed, he was devastated. I don’t think he wanted to feel that again. So he knuckled down and went even harder.
“I can see Tyson go: ‘No you are not having it this time’ and get his head down.
“I think he’ll come back stronger. Definitely.”
Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury’s big heavyweight rematch can be reside on Saturday December 21 on Sky Sports activities Field Workplace. Guide Usyk v Fury 2 now!