Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury will meet in their much anticipated heavyweight title rematch on December 21 at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as the Ukrainian attempts to defend his Ring Magazine, WBC, WBO, and WBA titles against The Ring's No. 1 rated contender.
Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) beat Fury (34-1-1) via split decision on May 18 to become the first undisputed heavyweight champion in 25 years. Fury started the fight strong against the undersized Usyk but faded late after he was knocked down in the ninth round. Usyk landed 170 of 407 of his punches while Fury countered with 157 of 496 of his own. Two judges awarded Usyk the fight via scores 115-112 and 114-113 while a third judge had it 114-113 in favor of Fury.
To get a glimpse of how the rematch will unfold, The Ring met with former heavyweight contender and Deontay Wilder head coach Malik Scott – who has sparred Fury and Usyk during his heyday – to get his input, analysis, and final prediction.
“I'll give you a boxing consumer answer on how Fury should beat Usyk. He's bigger and he should walk right through him. Shit, nobody should walk straight into Usyk. I think Fury will get beat worse if he just walks to him. I believe he'd be walking into all kinds of traps. I just don't think Fury can beat Usyk.
“I think Usyk wins by stoppage. I predicted Usyk would stop Fury in the first fight. When Tyson came in lighter, I thought it would be a little bit more interesting. I think Usyk' style is too stubborn for Fury to put up with. The punches that hurt you the most are punches you can't see. And most of the time Usyk is hurting guys with shots they don't see. You don't have to be a hard puncher to get guys in trouble. Usyk has a good understanding of that. The shot that he hurt Tyson with was a blindsided shot.
“Fury's mentality that he has now is Kronk style. I don't think the Kronk style can beat Usyk. I think the Ben Davison style can give Usyk some trouble. But I don't think the new, imposing, bigger, and coming forward will give Usyk problems. Usyk fights big men very well, as you could see.
“To beat Usyk in a 12-round fight, you have to possess serious power that can literally separate him from his senses. If you can't do that, you're going to lose. We all know who has the kind of power to separate someone from their senses, and that's Deontay Wilder. Usyk has cleaned out the division. The only one he hasn't run across is the Alabama slammer. He should make that stop too, for history.”
Manouk Akopyan is the lead U.S. writer for The Ring. Follow him on X and Instagram.