“Historical First: Usyk vs. Fury Match”
Fury was displeased with the supercomputer’s verdict, Photo: Reuters
Aleksandar Usyk once again triumphed over Tyson Fury at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, though this time the British fighter put up significantly greater resistance against the Ukrainian champion.
However, it still fell short against the remarkable boxer from Crimea, who remains undefeated in all 23 of his fights and proudly holds the titles in both the cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions.
In their first encounter on May 18, Usyk secured victory by a narrow margin, while this time Turki Al el-Sheikh, head of the Saudi Arabian Sports Fund and supporter of major boxing events, put a supercomputer to the test, employing artificial intelligence to analyze the match.
The judges unanimously scored the fight on December 21, with all three giving it to Usyk at 116:112, favoring the WBC, WBA, and WBO heavyweight champion.
The supercomputer’s assessment was even more favorable to the Ukrainian, scoring it 118:112.
This technology analyzed every aspect of the match, including each round, movement, landed punches, and dodges.
The supercomputer’s result was disclosed afterward and did not alter the perceptions or scores of the official judges. This match marked a historic first as the inaugural bout to be evaluated by artificial intelligence technology.
Fury quickly exited the ring following the announcement and remarked under the stands that he believed he had won by a margin of three rounds.
He learned about the supercomputer’s result only during the post-fight press conference after his defeat.
“To hell with computers; let’s create more jobs for people instead and reduce reliance on machines. To hell with electric cars,” the former champion from Morecambe expressed.
His promoter, Frank Warren, was also dissatisfied with the outcome and expressed his frustrations about the supercomputer’s scoring before the official results were released:
“One of the judges didn’t award Fury a single round in the last seven; that’s simply impossible. The score makes no sense,” Warren asserted.
Interestingly, the supercomputer also did not give Fury any of the last seven rounds!
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