Tyson Fury’s father John Fury believes that Anthony Joshua does not deserve all the blame for his defeat against Oleksandr Usyk.
In a disappointing performance on Saturday night, it appeared that Joshua had made a tactical error in attempting to outbox the Ukrainian technician, instead of using his physical advantages.
A clear points victory, 117-112, 116-112, 115-113, was the outcome on the night and now Joshua is enforcing a rematch clause after acknowledging he has to overhaul his preparation to be ready to defeat the 34-year-old WBA, WBO and IBF champion.
Speaking to BT Sport, Fury pointed out that Derek Chisora, widely seen as an inferior fighter to Joshua, was nonetheless able to push Usyk harder in his own defeat.
“Listen, he's a very awkward man, Usyk. Obviously he’d never fought anybody like that before,” he said.
“What he did need to do is adopt Derek Chisora’s game plan because he did a better job than what [AJ] did.
“I thought if he used his weight a bit more and put a bit more devil in his work, it could’ve gone better for him.
“I was surprised because he’s a big dude.
“He might’ve lost too much weight, but what he needed to do was get all over him and put him under pressure. Not let him settle…”
Fury suggested that when it was clear Joshua was struggling to impose himself with the pre-prepared tactics, his corner should have changed things up.
“When your plan ain’t working, it’s up to the corner to switch it up, and they never.” he explained.
“They kept saying in the eighth round, ‘Be smart behind your jab.’
“It wasn’t working because he was in front of a master technician and he played Usyk’s game from the beginning.
“They didn’t try and change it – it’s his corner’s fault. Give AJ a break.
“Because it wasn’t all AJ’s fault, it was his corner, they never had the brains to help him out of a sticky situation.
“You’ve got to know that the men in your corner know the fight game."