John Fury races to the defense of Anthony Joshua
John Fury, the father of WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, has actually come out in defense of Anthony Joshua after his beatdown at the hands of outstanding Ukrainian Oleksandr Uysk last weekend.
On September 25, in the impressive backdrop of Tottenham Hotspurs' brand-new state of the art stadium, Londoner Joshua suffered a 12-round unanimous decision defeat to WBO mandatory challenger Oleksandr Uysk, who walked away with the WBO, IBF, IBO, WBA heavyweight titles.
The unexpected loss derailed a possible Fury vs. Joshua unification for early 2022.
Joshua will now face Usyk in a contracted rematch in the first quarter of next year.
Many observers criticised Joshua for his performance – mostly questioning AJ's strategy of attempting to box with a boxer, who is widely regarded as a far superior technician after 375 bouts as experience.
However, the elder Fury has cut his son's heavyweight rival some slack and instead blamed his corner, including head trainer Robert McCracken, for utilising the wrong game plan and failing to make essential adjustments during the fight.
"Listen he’s a very awkward man, Usyk. Obviously, he’d never fought anybody like that before. What he did need to do is adopt Derek Chisora’s game plan because he did a better job than what [AJ] did," John Fury told BT Sport.
"I thought if he used his weight a bit more and put a bit more devil in his work, it could’ve gone better for him. I was surprised because he’s a big dude. He might’ve lost too much weight, but what he needed to do was get all over him and put him under pressure. Not let him settle. When your plan ain’t working, it’s up to the corner to switch it up, and they never. They kept saying in the eighth round, ‘Be smart behind your jab.’
“It wasn’t working because he was in front of a master technician and he played Usyk’s game from the beginning. They didn’t try and change it – it’s his corner’s fault. Give AJ a break. Because it wasn’t all AJ’s fault, it was his corner, they never had the brains to help him out of a sticky situation. You’ve got to know that the men in your corner know the fight game.”
Use the code BBN for 10% off all purchases at Fit-Bag
HÖRFA Menswear are proud sponsors of British Boxing News