Roy Jones Jr has made his mind up on the upcoming rematch between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk.
The first fight was a pick’em and it certainly played out like that with many close rounds and plenty of technical back and forth between two highly talented boxers.
Usyk was the man who managed to make the most clear impression, though, landing a big shot in the 9th round that led to Fury falling back on the ropes and being given a standing 8 count that ultimately led to him winning on the cards.
It was the first ever professional defeat for ‘The Gypsy King’ while Usyk became the undisputed champion, which is a feat he also achieved down in the cruiserweight division in 2018.
The rematch takes place in December out in Saudi Arabia and Fury has admitted the mistakes he made and has vowed to not be beaten again.
Speaking to talkSPORT Boxing, former multi-weight world champion Jones Jr assessed the rematch.
“Well it’s a very tough predicament for both of them. You never really can tell how things are going to shape out. But to me, Fury is one of the best guys at coming back and making adjustments.
I think he pretty much does most of it himself. This is why back eight years ago I told him, get your mind together and you can pretty much beat all the heavyweights out there.”
He then spoke of what Fury did wrong in his mind in the first fight.
“The thing about it though is he made the same mistake with Usyk as Wilder. He knew Wilder couldn’t fight backing up so he went out there, backed Wilder up and beat him right? But why would you go out there and back up for Usyk? Usyk is the small guy.
You don’t back up on the small guy, you back up you give him confidence. He gave him confidence and look what happened. So now the sacrifice will be tougher because Usyk knows from the first fight he can put Fury down. It could work for him, could work against him.”
Finally, he gave his prediction and sided with another Usyk win.
“He goes out there and is methodical and does everything Usyk does, he’ll beat him again.”
If Usyk does win, he could well look to unify again by taking on Daniel Dubois, who he already beat in August 2023, for the IBF title.
