Lennox Lewis, Jon Jones, & other stars react to classic Fury vs Usyk bout Associated PressThe Oleksandr Usyk vs Tyson Fury battle lived up to its billing, as the two heavyweight champions left it all on the line in a 12-round instant classic. Fury came out strong and commanded the ring, but Usyk flipped the script by nearly knocking out \u2018The Gypsy King\u2019 in a momentum-altering ninth round. Usyk cleaned up the final three rounds and ultimately took home the victory on the judges\u2019 scorecards. However, it didn\u2019t come without some controversy. One judge scored the contest in favor of Fury, while the two others felt Usyk did enough to have his hand raised. As such, the Ukrainian star became the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis accomplished the feat in 1999. The split-decision victory led to strong reactions from the Fury camp, as Tyson claimed he should have won, and his promoter, Frank Warren, agreed. But boxing legends who watched the match, along with several current combat sports stars, all agreed that it was an all-time classic matchup \u2014 regardless of the winner. Former UFC champions Alexander Volkanovski and Conor McGregor shared their thoughts, with Volk saying he \u201ccan\u2019t wait\u201d for the rematch expected later in 2024. Current UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones was in amazement by Usyk\u2019s near-knockout in the ninth round while simultaneously showing respect for Fury\u2019s ability to rebound. Terence Crawford asked for more respect on Usyk\u2019s name after solidifying his claim as one of the best boxers alive. \u201cHe\u2019s definitely a candidate for the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world,\u201d Crawford said on X. BJ Penn agreed, calling Usyk a \u201clegend\u201d in the aftermath of the fight. Lennox Lewis, the last undisputed heavyweight champion in the boxing world, welcomed Usyk to \u201cthe club\u201d as he joined an illustrious group of boxers who came before him as undisputed champs. Lewis released a video congratulating \u2018Oleksandr the Great,\u2019 claiming that Usyk\u2019s victory proves \u201cit is never too late to add to your legacy.\u201d With both Fury and Usyk agreeing to an immediate rematch during post-fight interviews, \u2018The Gypsy King\u2019 will get a chance to redeem himself later in 2024. But if it\u2019s up to Usyk, he won\u2019t be relinquishing the undisputed heavyweight title that easily. No matter who wins, it\u2019ll be another notch in both men\u2019s legacies. All of this talk of a rematch has everyone asking one question: Why can\u2019t Fury and Usyk fight again next week?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lennox Lewis, Jon Jones, & other stars react to classic Fury vs Usyk bout Associated PressThe Oleksandr Usyk vs Tyson Fury battle lived up to its billing, as the two heavyweight champions left it all on the line in a 12-round instant classic. Fury came out strong and commanded the ring, but Usyk flipped the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21653\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}