Lennox Lewis criticised Tyson Fury’s gameplan against Oleksandr Usyk after the Briton suffered a split-decision loss to the Ukrainian.
Fury, 35, lost his WBC title and his perfect record to Usyk in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as his rival became the first undisputed heavyweight champion in the four-belt era.
Usyk staged a late comeback to edge the fight, and legend Lewis – the last undisputed champion before Saturday’s contest – said Fury got his tactics wrong.
“Fury was boxing like he won the fight,” Lewis said on DAZN.
“No boxer can judge and say they won the fight.
“Every time a round was close they should look at it like a loss.”
Two judges scored the fight for Usyk, while a third scored it 114-113 to Fury.
All three officials gave rounds eight, nine and 10 to Usyk as momentum swung in his favour after a strong opening for Fury.
Fury was taunting Usyk from the opening rounds, hurting his opponent in the sixth before suffering a 10 count in the ninth round.
Fury said he believed he was clearly ahead on the scorecards going into the final round.
“I was having fun in there. I was playing around. I was loving it. I thought I was bossing the fight,” he said of the showboating.
“If my corner would have said in the final round, go out and finish it, I would have – but we all thought we were up.
“In the first six rounds he maybe nicked one of them. It was close and I tried my best. I came up short.”
