Former world champion Tony Bellew says Tyson Fury must acknowledge that Oleksandr Usyk was simply the better fighter. Speaking at the launch of his Fight Your Corner podcast, Bellew described Usyk as an “elite-level freak” and urged Fury to stop denying the truth after losing twice to the Ukrainian in 2024.
Bellew, who himself moved back down to cruiserweight to challenge Usyk in Manchester in 2018, was stopped by Usyk in the eighth round. Drawing on that experience, he said Usyk exposed Fury in ways few opponents can.
“Just say it as it is. He was better than you,” Bellew told Sky Sports. “Tyson Fury spent 12 months degrading him and dehumanising him and insulting him. Then when he beat him it was like ‘I’ve been robbed’. No ‘he’s amazing, I just didn’t think he was that good’, none of the credit he deserves, which I don’t like. When you get beat by someone who’s better than you just hold your hands up. It kills him. That’s what breaks his heart the most, that he’s met someone who’s just better than him. But he’s not the only one and he’s got to accept that.”
Fury has consistently argued he deserved the decision at least in their second fight, but Bellew said that attitude fails to recognise Usyk’s exceptional qualities. “He’s an elite-level freak and it’s just the way he is,” Bellew added.
Recalling his own fight, Bellew said his game plan was working perfectly until Usyk gradually took over. “Everything was perfect. At the end of round seven I’m up on two cards and I’m drawing on the third card but I didn’t know where I was at the start of round eight. He made me that tired,” Bellew said. “He’s the best fighter I’ve ever faced. His footwork was on another level. He’d downloaded everything I’d done and he used it against me in the end. He’s exceptional. I’d never faced anyone who could do what he’d done to me.”
Bellew described the finishing sequence vividly: he went down, beat the count, and still wanted to continue, but the referee intervened. “I’m on my back, flat down, I get up [at the count of] six or seven. I’m asking to fight at eight. But I’m looking at the ceiling. But I want to carry on fighting. Thankfully the referee saved my life, he stopped it. A referee is there to save you.”
Bellew’s comments underline a wider view among some fighters and commentators that Usyk’s technical mastery and ring IQ make him a uniquely difficult matchup, even for heavyweights of Fury’s calibre.