Tyson Fury is adamant he won his fight with Oleksandr Usyk and claims his downfall was a result of the undisputed world heavyweight clash being “too easy”.
Fury suffered the first defeat of his professional career when he was on the wrong end of a split decision in Riyadh last month, paving the way for a rematch on December 21.
The ‘Gypsy King’ was saved by the bell in the ninth round having survived a standing eight count forced by a furious assault from Usyk, who added the WBC belt to his WBA, IBF and WBO titles.
Prior to that Fury was in control of a classic at the Kingdom Arena, which he insists he was enjoying too much in explanation of his showboating against the Ukrainian.
“I’ve watched the fight back lots of times. Still got the same answer – I thought I won the fight and thought I’d done enough. Usyk knows that he didn’t beat me,” the Briton told FUROCITY.
“It was close enough. One judge had me winning by a round and one of them had him winning by a round and that was the final decision. I thought I boxed the head right off him for most of the rounds.
“The fight was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be, a lot easier. People say he’s a hard man to hit, I was landing three or four punch combinations, laughing at him.
“My problem in that fight was that I was probably having too much fun. It was probably too easy. At times it was too easy.
“It was like I was in there with a local amateur boxer and I was just enjoying it too much and messing around.
“I paid the ultimate price round in round nine when I got a 10-8 round and got clipped. That’s what happens when you’re having too much fun. But I enjoyed it.”
Addressing Usyk, he added: “Get yourself well – I hear he’s got a broken jaw and broken eye socket – and I’ll see you in December for a Christmas extravaganza in Saudi Arabia. Get up!”
Footage recently emerged of an apparently drunk Fury being escorted from a bar and then falling over in the street during a night out in his home town of Morecambe.
The incident took place earlier this month and Fury, who has frequently spoken of his mental health issues, insists he simply drank too much.
“I got p***** up about two weeks ago, fell over on me face. Didn’t do any damage though, still good looking. As you do, you know what I mean, when you’re on a night out,” he said.
“I’ve had lots of messages and lots people phoning me asking am I all right?. You go and have a drunken night out and all of a sudden you’re going to jump in front of a train. Obviously from my past history people had concerns.”