Tyson Fury lost his undisputed heavyweight world title fight against Oleksandr Usyk – but will have the chance to avenge his first defeat

Tyson Fury has been told he wasn’t fit enough for his undisputed heavyweight title fight against Oleksandr Usyk.

Fury lost for the first time as a professional when he was outpointed by Usyk in May. The Ukrainian almost stopped Fury in the ninth round before settling for a split-decision victory in Saudi Arabia. The rivals will meet again four days before Christmas as Fury attempts to set up a clash with Anthony Joshua next year.

And leading boxing trainer Brendan Ingle believes Fury was not in good enough shape for the biggest fight of his career. “For me, Tyson wasn’t fit enough because in the rounds that he did get to the top side of Usyk, and there were two or three rounds in mid-fight where he had Usyk in trouble, it’s just a case of sustaining that for the rest of the fight. He couldn’t do it. So that means he wasn’t fit enough,” he told Boxing King Media.

” Tyson Fury, he shouldn’t have got beat by Usyk because Tyson Fury at his best, and I don’t believe he was at his best, would have beaten Usyk. So, for me, he wasn’t fit enough. If you’re a lighter fighter like Usyk, that’s what you’ve got to do. Tyson, realistically, shouldn’t have been out on his feet against Usyk. He shouldn’t have gotten anywhere near him. With the height and reach Tyson’s got, he didn’t utilize it properly to keep him long and away.”

Fury has come under considerable criticism since his defeat, with his corner in particular coming under fire. Speaking to former world champion Carl Froch on his YouTube channel, Fury’s uncle and former trainer Peter said: “I’m an avid believer of one man should give the instructions whether it be who is the trainer there? So, if his dad’s the trainer, let his dad do the talking, if the other guy’s a trainer, from America, let him do the talking. But when three or fours talking, how are you going to listen to all that? I don’t think he listened to any of it anyway.

“So whether it was emotions in there, everybody was speaking, I’ll tell you what it looked like to me, it looked like it was all mates and they were just trying to gee him on or something, I don’t know. There didn’t seem to be any, there was no professionalism in that corner as far as one clear voice stating what he needed to do.”