IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs) believes WBC champ Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) is worried about their fight and is a troubled person heading into their February 17th undisputed championship clash at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Some believe that Fury is having kittens, worrying about getting schooled by the talented Usyk, who isn’t someone that he can use his mauling thyle of fighting against.
Fury’s last fight against Francis Ngannou showed that he’s lost a few steps and isn’t the fighter he once was nine years ago when he was still firing on all eight cylinders.
The general consensus is that Fury would have never taken this fight with the highly technical former undisputed cruiserweight champion and 2012 Olympic gold medalist if not for His Excellency Turki Alalshikh offering him Fort Knox’s worth of dough.
Even with that, it’s believed that the 35-year-old Fury had misgivings about taking the fight because it was against the wrong type of opponent, and he was no longer young.
Fury has gotten by with the help of his promoters, who have done a fine job of keeping him winning in the last nine years, matching him against fighters like Dillian Whyte, Dereck, Chisora, and Deontay Wilder but keeping him far, far away from these killers:
- Anthony Joshua
- Zhilei Zhang
- Jared Anderson
- Joseph Parker
Usyk’s Stoic Response
“Tyson Fury is the one who talks too much. The idea for this is to get into my head. But the reality is, I’m inside his head,” said Oleksandr Usyk on X.
“When Tyson has a go at Usyk, it just gives him fuel because he’s not someone that responds. He responds as he’s walking off,” said Gareth A. Davies to iFL TV, talking about how the trash-talking that Fury has done hasn’t had an effect on Usyk.
“He’s not one of those guys that’s in your face. He takes it back to his camp. He’s going to be very, very dangerous against Tyson Fury,” Gareth said about Usyk. “It’s going to be a difficult fight. He’s very technical, he moves so well, and he’s not easy to hit.
“I still think Fury is the favorite in the fight, but I just think they’re both promoting the fight in their own way. They’re being in their own skins. They’re very comfortable with themselves at this stage,” said Gareth.
