Former super middleweight champion George Groves is picking IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk to defeat WBC champion Tyson Fury on May 18th.
“Usyk is a lot better”
Groves feels that despite Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs) starting his career at cruiserweight and being much smaller than the 270+ lb Fury (34-0-1, 34 KOs), he’s just “a lot better” fighter than him. He views Usyk as more skilled and capable of doing different things.
There’s no doubt that Usyk is levels above Fury in overall talent, and there’s a comparison between them. Fury used to be a good mover, but his mobility has slowed since he put on all that weight years ago celebrating his win over Wladimir Klitschko in 2015.
If Usyk can stay on the move and not let Fury grab, lean, and wrestle him, he’s got a good chance of beating him on May 18th in their fight at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
“Yeah, I picked Usyk to beat Fury. I remember when Usyk first moved up to heavyweight, I said, ‘He’s a dark horse. Don’t write this guy off,'” said George Groves to the talkSport Boxing YouTube channel.
“We’ve seen cruiserweight move up to heavyweight and dominate in previous years. It did seem a bit unfathomable for a lot of people that he’s never going to compete with Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury. I still think Usyk beats him.”
Fury’s Reliance on Size and Questionable Tactics
Fury has obviously learned a lot of things during his career, but the stuff that we’re seeing from him now is pretty simple consisting of these things:
– Leaning
– Backhands
– Slapping
– Rabbit punches
– Holding & Hitting
– Wrestling
– Elbowing
– Holding
Fury bends the rules in fights and gets away with it without being penalized or warned. If he’s able to use roughhouse tactics against Usyk without facing the consequences on May 18th, that will increase his chances of winning. Usyk won’t make it easy on Fury to use these tactics.
“The argument says, ‘A good big un beats a good little un, but I think Usyk is an exceptional fighter. In terms of their boxing ability, Usyk is a lot better,” said Groves.
Fury, 35, has gotten by with being bigger than his opponents, using his size to win fights in various ways. In recent years, he has stepped away from fighting top-level opposition, and that’s helped him keep winning.
In his last three fights, Fury has fought Francis Ngannou, Dereck Chisora, and Dillian Whyte. Fighting that kind of opposition has helped Fury stay on top.