Amir Khan: I think the fight between Usik and Fury could have ended in a draw

Former world junior welterweight champion Amir Khan believes that the fight for the undisputed heavyweight title between the Ukrainian Alexander Usik and British Tyson Fury was equal.

“It was a close fight, a very close fight. Many are saying that the fight should have been stopped after the knockdown because Tyson missed a lot of punches in the ninth round. But he quickly recovered. I thought about how quickly Fury would recover. He did it very quickly and started boxing again.”

“I think he was winning the rounds at the end of the fight. This shows what kind of fighter Tyson is. He may have lost the fight, but it was a close fight. In my opinion, it could have ended in a good draw, which would have made their second fight even bigger.”

Let us remember that on the night of May 19, Usik inflicted the first defeat in his professional career on Fury in a fight that took place at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia). In the ninth round, Alexander knocked down the “Gypsy King” deeply, and only the referee’s intervention prevented the fight from ending ahead of schedule. As a result, the victory was awarded to the Ukrainian by a split decision: 115-112, 113-114 and 114-113.

As the statistics of the fight show, Fury threw more punches, but Usik hit more often (including with powerful punches) and was much more accurate and effective. This was especially noticeable in the second half of the fight, when the Briton seriously lost. At the same time, Alexander set a record: never before had the “Gypsy King” missed so many blows in one fight (170); the previous record (127) belonged to Otto Wallin.

It was reported that an agreement had been reached between Usyk and Fury for a re-fight. The Chairman of the General Authority of Entertainment of Saudi Arabia, Turki Al al-Sheikh, stated that the rematch between Alexander and Tyson is scheduled for October 12-13 in Riyadh.