Time for the cackling disrupter to make his exit but there is no shame in losing to a true great

In the end everyone runs out of road. It was probably necessary for Tyson Fury to say he was robbed in the Kingdom Arena on Saturday night.

- Barney Ronay

Boxing demands this level of irrationality. Logical multimillionaires do not willingly schedule a brain-jarring, soul-shredding half-hour beating from one of the most effective practitioners of controlled violence ever to walk the planet. A basic suspension of reason is required. Without it no one would ever step in the ring.

So Fury will maintain that all three judges were wrong to award a unanimous points decision in Oleksandr Usyk's favour after 12 thrillingly intense rounds in Riyadh. Last time out Fury said he lost because of the war in Ukraine. This time he said it was because of Christmas. Nobody was robbed here. Fury, the challenger, needed to go out and actively take the heavyweight belts. In the event the champion always seemed to have his head above the water.

The fight was still probably closer than the scores suggested. But 24 rounds into this, having witnessed slick, slimmed-down Fury1, followed by this version, jellyroll-laden Fury2, and having considered all possibilities in between - Semi-Fat Fury? Hyper-Fat Fury? Fat Fury But No Beard? - there is a sense they could do this 20 times more and Usyk would win every one with varying degrees of comfort.

For Fury this is also an occasion where defeat can be ennobling. There is no disgrace, no sense of loss for an athlete in stretching right into the limits of your own capacities. Matched against the greatest fighter of the modern age, Fury has twice stayed the course and given every drop of juice left in his skinny ankles. Sometimes you just have nowhere left to run.