Defeated fighters are, understandably, never in the best of moods following a fight.

And Tyson Fury was clearly not happy.

"The judges gave him a Christmas gift," Fury, who arrived in the ring dressed as Santa Claus, told reporters some time after his thrilling unified heavyweight world title rematch against Oleksandr Usyk in Riyadh. 

"There is no doubt in my mind I won this fight."

His promoter Frank Warren was just as upset, saying he was "dumbfounded" by the scoring.

But the judges were unanimous in giving Usyk a points victory — which plenty of observers agreed with. 

All three judges scored the fight 116-112, but such are the vagaries of boxing, there was little unanimous about the scoring from the three men ringside.

Patrick Morley (USA), Ignacio Robles (Panama) and Gerardo Martinez (Puerto Rico) all came to the same conclusion, sure. 

But the way they got there was very different.

How is boxing scored?

Judging controversy is not a new issue in boxing.

It is pretty standard for losing fighters to cry foul when the scorecards go against them — just look at the furore after Jeff Horn stunned Manny Pacquiao in Brisbane all those years ago.

And, as was the case in Fury and Usyk's first meeting, the fight was desperately close.

But in any situation where perception and opinion is factored into the equation, there can be room for disagreements. 

So how do the scores work?

Boxing is scored on a 10-point must system, where the winner of each round is given 10 points and the loser is normally given 9.

This changes if a fighter is knocked down in a round, when that knocked down fighter is given an 8, making it a 10-8 round.

The judges, three of them for prize fights, sit on three different sides of the ring and award their scores in each round based on clean punching, effective aggression, which fighter dictates the pace of the fight, and defence. 

That in itself presents plenty of opportunities for interpretation.

For one, a judge whose view is obscured by the body of one of the fighters may miss some punches landing simply because they can't see them.

Of course, this type of scoring can also lend itself to some pretty wild scores.

For example, a very close fight in which both fighters are pretty evenly matched can result in one fighter winning every round by a very small amount: In a 10-round fight, that would result in a score of 90-100 which would instantly be decried as "too wide a score" when really it's the scoring system that's at fault rather than anything too nefarious.

Much of the argument in the immediate aftermath of the decision in Riyadh centred on that fact. 

Many thought this fight, being so close, should have resulted in closer scores.

Yet the truth of the matter is that the fight was scored incredibly closely — and the unanimous numbers on the scorecards were something of a fluke.

How was the Fury-Usyk fight scored?

As we mentioned, all three judges scored the fight 116-112 — a unanimous points victory for Usyk.

In round terms, that translates to eight rounds awarded to Usyk, and four rounds to Fury.

If Fury had been given one extra round, that scoreline shifts to 115-113, which presumably would have been close enough for some.

What illustrates how close the scores were though is that the judges could not actually agree on which four rounds Fury did win.

Martinez gave Fury rounds 1, 4, 5 and 12, Morley gave him rounds 1, 3, 4 and 5, and Robles gave him rounds 2, 4, 5 and 9.

As you can see, there is a discrepancy.

Indeed, the judges only reached a unanimous agreement in seven of the 12 rounds — 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11 — the first two of which went the way of Fury, the others for Usyk.

The best friend of American commentators, Compubox's punch stats, shows Usyk was more accurate, but Fury was busier, throwing 86 more shots than Usyk overall, but landing 35 fewer.

Those stats show that Usyk landed a higher percentage of punches than Fury in every round, even though Fury threw more shots in all but two rounds.

So was it the right call?

"I've been in boxing my whole life but I'll always feel a little bit hard done by — not a little bit, a lot," Fury, sporting a badly swollen right eye, said at the post-fight press conference.

"I know I had to knock him out but it's boxing and this happens.

"Frank [Warren] had me three or four rounds up and a lot of people had me up by at least two."

Warren, who is never shy about defending his fighters, described Fury's game plan as "superb".

"His jabbing was superb, his footwork was superb, he wasn't slow. He was very evasive," he said.

And that was all demonstrably true. But for most observers, it simply wasn't enough against a fighter who will surely go down as one of the greatest in history.

Usyk had a different opinion to "Uncle Frank".

"I think he is blind," Usyk said.

"If Tyson says it is a Christmas gift then OK, thank you God, not Tyson. Thank you to my team."

A great big 'un beaten by the greatest little 'un

Boxing's oldest most irrefutable truth was that a good big 'un would beat a good little 'un.

There are so many examples where that has been proven to be true, dating back to heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey beating French light heavyweight champ Georges Carpentier in 1921.

The weight difference between those two fighters was 25lb, or 11kg.

In Saudi Arabia on Saturday, Fury came in 55lb (25kg) heavier than Usyk at the weigh-in, albeit in various states of dress.

That's equivalent to the difference between Australia's 165cm-tall former super bantamweight world champion Jason Moloney and the 192cm-tall light heavyweight contender Conor Gallagher, who sit a full nine weight divisions apart.

So, while in most cases the larger man would win out, that negates the skill, resilience and outright class of one of boxing's greatest ever exponents and clear candidate to be at least this generation's pound-for-pound king.

Usyk's legacy as undisputed cruiserweight champion, who stepped up to become undisputed heavyweight champion and remains unbeaten at 23-0, is unmatched as a hero of the Ukrainian people so battered by a draining and excruciating war against Russia that still rages.

The pre-fight rendition of Šče ne vmerla Ukrainy was as awe-inspiring as anything that followed.

After the win, he held up a sword that had once belonged to the 17th‑century Cossack warrior Ivan Mazepa, a man who fought off Russian invaders some 300 years ago.

And throughout it all, Usyk retained the class that set him apart from a man that belittled and talked down to him throughout their battles — albeit as part of the necessary show of big-time boxing.

"Tyson is my best friend," Usyk said. 

"I really respect this guy. Tyson Fury make me strong. Tyson is a great opponent. Is a big man, is a tough boxer, is a good man. 

"A lot of talk, [but] it [is] just show. 

"I very respect Tyson Fury."