Lennox Lewis thinks the referee did a bang-up job in the previous Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk fight with his decision not to stop the fight in the ninth round when ‘The Gypsy King’ was out on his feet after getting nailed by a left hand.
Lewis says Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) was just “Playing around” by bouncing from rope to rope while eating repeated headshots from Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs), and he thinks the referee did the right thing by stopping it. I washed the fight a dozen times, and at no time did it look like Fury was “playing” like he was hurt. He was mortally hurt, and, shockingly, Lewis couldn’t see that.
The referee shoved Unified heavyweight champion Usyk out of the way when he was about to nail Fury with the finishing blow in the ninth. The ref gave Fury a standing eight count, which saved his hide. It achieved these two purses:
- Eating up valuable seconds
- Preventing Usyk from poleaxing him
In the Fury-Usyk rematch in nine days on December 21st, Usyk has made it known that he’s coming for a knockout. He’s got the Hitman persona that he’s taken up, and he’s coming to finish what he started last time.
Fury “Playing” According to Lewis
“He got hit on the nose, and it made him to back on the ropes. He bounced off the ropes one time,” said Lennox Lewis to the media about Tyson Fury getting hurt by Oleksandr Usyk in the ninth round of their previous fight on May 18th.
“He was playing when he was bouncing off the ropes because he was using the ropes to keep him up. He was playing bouncing off the ropes because he was using the ropes to keep him up,” Lewis said about Fury. “I thought the ref was great in that fight because some refs would have stopped it. That ref stayed focused, didn’t stop the fight, and allowed them to box.”
What on earth is Lewis talking about? Fury wasn’t “Playing” when he was bouncing off the ropes after getting hurt by Usyk in the ninth. He was out on his feet. How can Lewis not know this? Is he intentionally being obtuse?
Lennox’s spin on the referee saving Fury in the ninth round is an interesting one because he seems to be backing Fury’s fans, who believe the ref did the right thing by giving him a standing eight count rather than allowing Usyk to finish him with the coup de grace.
It looked to fans like the referee gave Fury special treatment to save his hide when he was about to get knocked into the next century. It would be interesting to know if Lennox would have felt the same way if Usyk were saved by the referee.
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