Tyson Fury says he will “put my fist right through” Oleksandr Usyk when the two fight. Usyk says Fury is “scared of me” and that Fury doesn’t really want to fight him. We fans are hoping the undisputed heavyweight clash between the two undefeated rival champions will go down next year, early next year. But will it actually happen? Usyk, speaking with ESPN during Saturday’s Vasiliy Lomachenko-Jamaine Ortiz fight (Usyk was there to support his countryman and friend) suggested Fury is “running.”
Fury, who as we all know will face Derek Chisora in what is a heavily criticised mismatch of a third fight between the two, is saying it is Usyk who is doing the running, with Fury telling everyone he wanted to fight Usyk in December, not Chisora. But Usyk is laughing, and he says he will face Fury early next year.
“At this moment in time, it makes me laugh about it,” Usyk said of the Fury situation. “Why is he doing this [fighting Chisora]? I think we already agreed with him to fight and now he’s running and saying that I don’t want to fight him……I know that [he’s scared of me.]”
Usyk did say after his repeat win over Anthony Joshua, this a fight that required a gruelling training camp for the former cruiserweight, that he would need time to heal and rest before fighting Fury. Now Fury is using this as a way of claiming Usyk is trying to swerve him. But whichever fighter you choose to listen to, the important thing is they do fight in 2023. Usyk concedes he will have a tough fight on his hands if and when the fight comes.
“He’s dangerous. He’s big. He’s a giant. He’s very smart. He knows what to do in the ring,” Usyk said of Fury. “I want to fight him and we need to unify all of the titles.”
Fury is widely expected to come through the Chisora trilogy fight without as much as a scratch, and then we will hopefully get the big one. Fury says he is using the December 3 Chisora fight as a warm-up for Usyk. Let’s hope the WBC heavyweight champion wants the unification showdown as much as Usyk seems to want it.
Who’s fooling who here?