BRITISH heavyweight Frazer Clarke chose to pay tribute to Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury after last night’s undisputed heavyweight title fight in Riyadh.
Going into the historic contest, Fury-Usyk was billed as a 50-50 contest, and the two men proved as much after going the 12-round distance. Although the Ukrainian got the nod, the two best heavyweights in the world emerged with enormous credit.
“I’m glad I’m in the division and I’m glad I’m in the era of them two because they’ve been amazing,” Clarke beamed when speaking to Boxing News.
The 32-year-old helped produce a British title classic on March 31 when he and Fabio Wardley knocked lumps out of one another in a hellacious battle at London’s O2 Arena.
While Fury and Usyk didn’t deliver a heavyweight Gatti-Ward, their unique skillsets and punch accuracy created a different type of edge-of-the-seat drama.
“What a fantastic fight,” Clarke said.
“I had Usyk winning it by a round, I think, but Tyson was unbelievable. How Usyk swung it around after them couple of rounds where Tyson really finds rhythm and got on top. Unbelievable. They both delivered for me. It’s what we expected of the undisputed fight.”
Clarke spent the night alongside Sky Sports’ Andy Scott, analysing the card and another heavyweight take on the biggest heavyweight fight in 25 years. The 2020 Olympic Bronze medallist praised Fury for surviving round nine, where ‘The Gypsy King’ looked on the verge of being stopped but instead received a standing eight count from referee Mark Nelson.
“Huge round and credit to Tyson because a lot of heavyweights will really finish that off. It’s a really good onslaught from Usyk. I feel like Tyson needed, them rounds that Tyson won. He had to work hard. He had to throw a lot more shots than the previous rounds. I feel like if he carried on doing that, he’d have won the fight.”