Tyson Fury Blames The Ukrainian War For His Heavyweight Title Fight Loss To Oleksandr Usyk

Oleksandr Usyk outlasted heavyweight boxing legend Tyson Fury in an epic heavyweight title fight in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia earlier today. But Fury thinks his defeat can be attributed to a rather odd reason.

The fight went the distance (12 rounds) and had to be decided by judge’s scoring. Fury took a commanding lead through the middle rounds, but Usyk (the underdog heading into the fight) clawed his way back to win the latter ones. In the end, two judges credited Usyk with the victory, scoring the fight 115-112, 114-113 and 113-114.

Fury (left) and Usyk (right) fought to a thrilling finish, with Usyk winning in a judge's decision. (Photo by Richard Pelham/Getty Images)

After the fight ended, reporters asked Fury for his perspective on what ended up being the first loss in his career in 36 total fights. His response was unorthodox, to say the least.

He started by saying that he believed he won the fight after winning the majority of rounds, which is fair. But then he said that Usyk, who is Ukrainian, got some unjustified support because his homeland is involved in a war.

"His country is at war, so people are siding with the country at war. Make no mistake, I won that fight in my opinion," Fury said.

Now I get that losing a fight of this magnitude certainly stinks, especially given that it's the first fight of his career.

However, that in no way justifies offering that lame and wildly immature reason for why he lost, or insulting the judges for being incompetent at their jobs. These guys know how to score fights and certainly wouldn’t have let nationality determine who they believed was the winner.

The more probable reason for why Fury lost is because he didn’t do enough to make the decision for the judges. Instead, he left it in their hands, and it cost him.