Countering the Jab: Oleksandr Usyk

How Usyk Beat Fury Again

All-Time Great in the Making

Contents:

• Proactive Defense

• Punishing the Frame

• Usyk’s Weapons

• The Dipping Jab

• The Rear Hand

Oleksandr Usyk again reigned supreme against The Gypsy King.

To any and all who thought Tyson Fury was robbed or that the decision was particularly close, it was not.

Fury impressively brought adaptations that were rendered moot by the in-ring reactions of the Ukrainian champion. Despite his best efforts, Tyson Fury could not manage more than a few good moments throughout the rematch.

To stop the fleet-footed giant, Usyk simply prevented Fury from using his lead hand.

V1

Fury found success early in trapping Usyk’s jab and pounding the body, but he could not keep hold of Usyk’s lead hand for long.

Fury relies on his own lead hand for offensive success. It has the dual purpose of jabbing to set up offense, and framing to keep distance or pull an opponent into the clinch. If Fury is not able to establish this double attack, he becomes much less effective.

Disclaimer: The video clips included in this article are not owned by the author. They are included for educational purposes only to illustrate key moments in the fighter’s career and demonstrate aspects of mixed martial arts techniques and strategies. All rights to the video content belong to their respective owners.

Proactive Defense

Usyk’s proactive head movement and high guard were the base of his lead hand counter attack. Constantly slipping while pivoting around Fury, gloves high on his head, Fury’s slapping jabs slid off the gloves as Usyk circled around (V2). Even if a punch was able to land, it rarely did so with authority.

Usyk maintains a higher pace than Fury by constantly occupying the space between them with his lead hand (V3). Feinting the jab, parrying, meeting Fury’s jab with his own. These keep Fury reactive and prevent him from landing the jab. As a natural southpaw, Usyk is accustomed to the open-stance matchup where most fighters struggle to enforce their jab. Rather than trying to land it from a non-optimal angle, he feints and prods Fury to get him punching back (V4). Though he is showing his opponent offense, it fulfills a defensive purpose in keeping Fury from proactively creating offense. From here, Usyk can begin throwing committed punches that also allow him to move around Fury for dominant offensive angles (V5).

V2

V3

V4

V5

Punishing the Frame

Fury’s lead hand is more than just his jab. While his jab is his primary setup tool for further offense, it also provides the crux of his defense: frames. Tyson Fury is an incredibly long man, even by heavyweight standards. Against a former cruiserweight he would appear a giant. He uses his framing lead hand to keep distance or enter a clinch.

Usyk’s mobile head and bicep ties nullified the threat of a clinch or a consistent frame, so he began punishing Fury’s lazy defensive reaction with jabs and straights (V6-V8). If Fury was able to keep his hand on the front of Usyk’s head he might have had success forcing him out. Had he established this consistently, he could have built uppercuts off of this. Usyk’s head movement was the difference maker.

In his mastery of the open-stance matchup Usyk is always looking to obtain outside foot position (V7-V8, V25). Getting one’s foot outside the opponent’s not only gives you a more favorable position to punch and not be countered, it has the added benefit of free movement after attacking. Without Fury’s leg to block the path of the shin, he is able to pivot to Fury’s outside after throwing. From behind the opponent’s lead shoulder, Usyk can continue an offensive flurry, but the true utility is that the opponent is not able to land any punches from this position. It can even trip the open up when they try to exit range themselves (V25).

Fury is not a dumb boxer and is more than aware of this, so he often backs up after trying to frame to prevent this from happening. This comes with its own problems. Usyk’s defense is of course integrated with a salient offense. Do not simply negate an opponent’s tools: punish them. Even when Fury thought he had a frame to keep Usyk out of range, Usyk’s foot positioning was deep enough that he could still land his rear hand to the body with ease (V9).

V6

V7

V8

Usyk’s Weapons

It’s been alluded to already, but the stars of Usyk’s performance were his jab and rear straight to the body. To punish Fury’s lead, Usyk endlessly tapped Fury’s greedy belly to mount the most consistent offense of the fight.