This past Saturday, the Oleksandr Usyk vs Tyson Fury 2 fight card was covered in judging controversy from top to bottom.
After losing for the first time in his career this past May, Tyson Fury pushed for an immediate rematch against Oleksandr Usyk and was granted it this past Saturday.
Unfortunately for the Brit, he was handed another loss by the Ukrainian champion, with all three judges awarding him the 116-112 unanimous decision win.
Turki Alalshikh comments on the fight between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury
Despite the consensus being that Usyk did enough to remain undefeated, Fury felt hard done by with the decision and immediately after the fight admitted that he felt he won the fight by at least three rounds.
Prior to the main event, there was an extremely controversial decision in the fight between Johnny Fisher and Dave Allen.
Fisher was awarded the split decision win and handed the WBA Inter Continental Heavyweight Title despite even Fisher’s father admitting that he thought Allen had won the fight.
Now a few days removed from the event, Saudi Boxing chief, Turki Alalshikh has broken his silence on the event.
“I needed time to realize what happened last night and I will speak from my heart as a fan not as a person from Riyadh Season team,” Alalshikh began to explain in his statement.
“In the fight between Usyk and Tyson, I counted that Usyk had 4 rounds more… that doesn’t mean Tyson was performing badly, no, he gave us everything but let’s be honest Usyk is one of the greatest boxers of this generation and he’s proved it with big names.
“Tyson has a part in my heart and he is one of the important reasons that boxing is still keeping its legacy… Usyk told me he is ready to do any fight in the future… about Tyson, I am waiting after he rests and takes time (with) his decision and I will understand if he retires.
“The fight between Fisher and Allen I counted differently and it’s my own opinion, shouldn’t be considered as judgment,” he continued.
Tyson Fury goes off on AI judge’s scorecard
As well as the three official judges scoring the bout, there was a fourth scorecard handed in by an AI judge. The AI judge’s scorecard was of course not part of the official decision, however, Turki was excited to see how it worked on its inaugural event.
Fortunately, the AI’s card was just experimental as it scored the fight widely in favor of Usyk, 118-112, which elicited a frustrated response from Fury when he was asked about it after the fight.
“Here’s one, f*** all the computers, keep the humans going. More jobs for humans, less jobs for computers,” Fury said.
It is unclear whether Riyadh Season will use the AI judge going forward on their cards, however, it likely needs tweaking going forward as it scored two rounds 10-10 in the heavyweight title fight.