Tyson Fury’s corner instructions against Oleksandr Usyk sparked an intense debate given the contrast between SugarHill Steward’s advice before the final round and the Briton’s belief that he “won by at least three rounds”.
Fury lost his rematch in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, dropping a unanimous decision to the Ukrainian seven months after suffering his first professional defeat in the highly-anticipated undisputed world title fight.
Corner footage emerged in the aftermath of the fight, showing trainer Steward frantically urging Fury to change the course of the fight late on before the final round.
“There ain’t no tomorrow, you hear me? It’s now,” Steward said, in what was a slimmed-down corner compared to the first fight, which included the additional voices and advice from father John Fury and former world champion and cousin Andy Lee.
“The fight’s too f***ing close, you got to keep your legs moving. You know which way you’re going.
“You’re sitting there doing this ****, keep the right foot turning around and keep on f***ing moving. Keep your goddamn hands up and give it everything you’ve got, Tyson.”
Yet despite Steward’s belief that his fighter needed to drastically alter the trajectory of the fight after 11 rounds, Fury was adamant that the 116-112 score according to all three officials was wrong stating as he stormed back to his changing room that he believed that he triumphed by a significant margin.
The difference in opinion prompted an intense back and forth between former bantamweight European champion Spencer Oliver and Talk Sport pundit Simon Jordan.
“He [Steward] was brilliant, he knew it was a close fight. In his head it was close. What SugarHill was doing, pumping his guy up, saying you need to go out there and to do something big,” Oliver said on Talk Sport.
“When you’re emotionally involved and invested, the swing rounds, SugarHill is thinking, ‘another one in the bag’, because he’s in that moment. Going into the 12th round, you can see why he was saying you need a big round.
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“The trainer thought it was tight and said, ‘go and have a big round.’”
Jordan replied; “The expertise, there’s a vast difference between thinking you’re in a tight fight or losing by four rounds.
“If he’s saying it’s tight, Tyson knows he can go in and not lose the round, but in the real instance, he needed a 10-8 or a knockout.
“Tyson says he thinks he’s won by three rounds, his trainer says it’s a close fight, giving him some urgency but not the ultimate urgency.”
Oliver hit back, adding: “You’re not listening to the answer.”
With Jordan then replying: “I am [listening], I think it’s nonsense,” Jordan added. “There should be no debate, it shouldn’t be a subtle message [from Steward].”
