AFTER A WEEK-LONG psychological war which neither boxer even remotely bothered the other, Tyson Fury paid Oleksandr Usyk the ultimate compliment: he absolutely effed him out of it at the 11th hour.
“I’m ready to knock this little fucker spark out,” said an animated Fury onstage following the weigh-in on Friday evening. “I’m coming for his heart. Fuck his belts — I’m coming for his fucking heart. He’s getting it tomorrow: spark out.”
Fury, growing increasingly furious, added: “Fuck him! And fuck all his team, too! Fuck the lot of them! They can all get it if they want it, too. Shithouses!”
Over on his side of the stage, Usyk did what he always does and vaguely resembled a huge, happy owl, his eyes wide but his ears indifferent to the onslaught being fired his way in a foreign language.
Usyk would have understood the F-word, of course. Equally, he’d have understood that this torrent of apparent abuse from Fury was, perversely, a sign of great respect.
Fury had been unable to get under his skin all week. Even when he shoved Usyk during their staredown at the weigh-in, the Ukrainian hadn’t blinked. And so Fury had been forced to get under his own skin and energise himself through manufactured anger rather than sap his opponent of belief.
The key point to all of this is that Fury will only ever bother his arse pulling out these stops if he believes the man stood opposite him poses a legitimate threat to his rulership of the heavyweight division. And Oleksandr Usyk does exactly that.
Former UFC star Francis Ngannou certainly didn’t on paper. For that reason, Fury’s embarrassing most recent performance can be dismissed for its sheer complacency.
Tonight will yield the first undisputed heavyweight title fight since Lennox Lewis bested Evander Holyfield in 1999 and it’s probably the first heavyweight fight since then in which both protagonists are truly comparable to the greats who preceded them.
The similarities don’t end there, either: Fury, like Lewis, the towering, powerful Brit; Usyk, like Holyfield, the former undisputed cruiserweight champion who has moved up in weight in pursuit of all-time greatness.
If Fury told you that the sky was blue, you’d throw on a rainjacket, but there was a hint of sincerity in his description of Usyk as being his best ever opponent during the week. Fury’s contention was that if Usyk had already cleaned out one division, he must be pretty good at boxing, and that much is definitely true.
Usyk [21-0, 14KOs] is almost the inverse of Fury [34-0-1, 24KOS] in that he says so little — in English, at least — it’s equally difficult to take him at face value. The quote which will forever precede him is, “I am very feel,” which these days is parroted affectionately not only in boxing circles but in wider culture.
But if he manages to inflict a first ever professional defeat on Fury tonight, another Usyk quote may outlive him.
Advertisement
In a sit-down with Steve Bunce for TNT Sport, Usyk was asked what he sees in Fury’s eyes whenever they come face to face. Usyk replied: “I not see eyes.” Then, pointing directly between his own, he added: “I see like this. Like sniper.”
And yet what an ominous insight into Usyk the man, because when you’d finished chuckling along with Buncey, you were left to think, ‘Shit — and Usyk would know, as well.’
Last summer, ahead of his stoppage victory over Daniel Dubois on Ukrainian Independence Day, Usyk recalled the time he had spent on the frontline of Russia’s invasion of his homeland:
“Through binoculars from 900 metres, I saw my enemies running, tanks exploding, houses broken.
“I saw people with no arms or legs. I saw those who could still walk looking like the walking dead.
“Everything, everywhere, dead. I went by car around a city. A dead city. Zero energy.
“We went past a kids’ playground. The toys are lying in that place but no children playing. It was dead.”
All of which goes a long way towards explaining why Tyson Fury’s F-bombs don’t exactly leave Oleksandr Usyk shaking in his boots.
Even strictly within a boxing context, Usyk’s lived experience renders him virtually bulletproof from a psychological standpoint: on his run to the undisputed cruiserweight title between 2017 and 2018, he staged one of the great sporting invasions, beating five of the best boxers in his division in their own backyards: Michael Hunter in America, Marco Huck in Germany, Maris Breidis in Latvia, Murat Gassiev in Russia and Tony Bellew in England.
And Fury, who has emerged from three healthy doses of Deontay Wilder’s prime weaponry undefeated, has no reason to ‘fear’ Usyk, either.
As ‘The Gypsy King’ has been at pains to point out since long before these two men were officially scheduled to engage in unarmed combat, size matters in heavyweight boxing.
Fury has routinely described Usyk as a blown-up middleweight, “a midget”, and other such variants.
Usyk is, of course, a huge man by most of our standards: he stands 6’3, he’s bound by muscle, and weighed in for tonight’s contest at 223.5lbs (101kg/16 stone). But he’s positively dwarfed by Fury (6’9, 262lbs), whose size advantages simply have to play a role in Riyadh tonight.
Incidentally, Fury was almost 16 pounds lighter on the scale on Friday than he was before his most recent bout with Ngannou. He was lighter, in fact, than he has been since he beat Otto Wallin in 2019.
One could look at that in three ways: Fury fancied some additional scope to counteract Usyk’s faster feet, or Fury wanted some extra mobility because he believes he can simply out-box the supposed master boxer, or Fury is simply leaner because he had back-to-back camps on either side of his eye injury which forced the bout’s postponement back in February. (That cut above Fury’s right eye, by the way, could well play a role in this fight: it doesn’t look fully healed and southpaw Usyk will target it with his surgical left hand).
In any case, Fury is still almost 40 pounds heavier than Usyk and is the naturally stronger man, and one suspects his plan will be to tie up Usyk in the clinch, lean on him, and drain the former cruiserweight champion of his energy in the first half of the fight.
That would leave Fury with a more static target down the stretch, when he could potshot from range and also further target the body of a tired Usyk, which has looked like a potential weakness since he’s been up with the big men.
Hey, boxing would be a brilliant profession if the other guy didn’t punch you back. And make no mistake about it: Usyk takes into this bout several of his own advantages.
The most glaring is his footwork, a trait for which all Ukrainian Olympic champions are famed and one which should provide this London 2012 gold medallist with plenty of entry points into the bout from an offensive standpoint.
Usyk’s feet are simply faster and better than Fury’s size 13s. He’ll be able to negate Fury’s seven-inch reach advantage and pivot into positions from which he can pepper Fury’s still-recovering right eye. And he’ll be confident, too, that he’ll have the wheels to prevent Fury from smothering him to a terminal extent in the clinch.
Fury will look to jab and prod and probe from distance to slow the pace to that with which he is cosy. It will be Usyk who brings the fury, and seeks to drag the bigger man into a rhythm beyond that comfort zone.
This will be a high-level chess match between two of the most intuitive boxers the heavyweight division has ever seen, but who is actually the better technical boxer?
You’d find the answer if you shrunk them into middleweights, at which size Oleksandr Usyk would unequivocally win.
In the realm of giants, though, the outcome is far less certain. The boxing world is divided on a fight for which not even the two men in the middle can feel especially confident.
Don’t expect a barnburner: this will be more suspenseful than it is flat-out exciting.
For what it’s worth, this writer fancies Usyk to overcome a tough start and bank enough rounds down the stretch that his arm should be raised by the end of it all.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
In effing Oleksandr Usyk out of it, Tyson Fury paid him the ultimate respect
AFTER A WEEK-LONG psychological war which neither boxer even remotely bothered the other, Tyson Fury paid Oleksandr Usyk the ultimate compliment: he absolutely effed him out of it at the 11th hour.
“I’m ready to knock this little fucker spark out,” said an animated Fury onstage following the weigh-in on Friday evening. “I’m coming for his heart. Fuck his belts — I’m coming for his fucking heart. He’s getting it tomorrow: spark out.”
Fury, growing increasingly furious, added: “Fuck him! And fuck all his team, too! Fuck the lot of them! They can all get it if they want it, too. Shithouses!”
Over on his side of the stage, Usyk did what he always does and vaguely resembled a huge, happy owl, his eyes wide but his ears indifferent to the onslaught being fired his way in a foreign language.
Usyk would have understood the F-word, of course. Equally, he’d have understood that this torrent of apparent abuse from Fury was, perversely, a sign of great respect.
Fury had been unable to get under his skin all week. Even when he shoved Usyk during their staredown at the weigh-in, the Ukrainian hadn’t blinked. And so Fury had been forced to get under his own skin and energise himself through manufactured anger rather than sap his opponent of belief.
The key point to all of this is that Fury will only ever bother his arse pulling out these stops if he believes the man stood opposite him poses a legitimate threat to his rulership of the heavyweight division. And Oleksandr Usyk does exactly that.
Former UFC star Francis Ngannou certainly didn’t on paper. For that reason, Fury’s embarrassing most recent performance can be dismissed for its sheer complacency.
Tonight will yield the first undisputed heavyweight title fight since Lennox Lewis bested Evander Holyfield in 1999 and it’s probably the first heavyweight fight since then in which both protagonists are truly comparable to the greats who preceded them.
The similarities don’t end there, either: Fury, like Lewis, the towering, powerful Brit; Usyk, like Holyfield, the former undisputed cruiserweight champion who has moved up in weight in pursuit of all-time greatness.
If Fury told you that the sky was blue, you’d throw on a rainjacket, but there was a hint of sincerity in his description of Usyk as being his best ever opponent during the week. Fury’s contention was that if Usyk had already cleaned out one division, he must be pretty good at boxing, and that much is definitely true.
Usyk [21-0, 14KOs] is almost the inverse of Fury [34-0-1, 24KOS] in that he says so little — in English, at least — it’s equally difficult to take him at face value. The quote which will forever precede him is, “I am very feel,” which these days is parroted affectionately not only in boxing circles but in wider culture.
But if he manages to inflict a first ever professional defeat on Fury tonight, another Usyk quote may outlive him.
In a sit-down with Steve Bunce for TNT Sport, Usyk was asked what he sees in Fury’s eyes whenever they come face to face. Usyk replied: “I not see eyes.” Then, pointing directly between his own, he added: “I see like this. Like sniper.”
Like sniper. What a line. What a delivery.
And yet what an ominous insight into Usyk the man, because when you’d finished chuckling along with Buncey, you were left to think, ‘Shit — and Usyk would know, as well.’
Last summer, ahead of his stoppage victory over Daniel Dubois on Ukrainian Independence Day, Usyk recalled the time he had spent on the frontline of Russia’s invasion of his homeland:
“Through binoculars from 900 metres, I saw my enemies running, tanks exploding, houses broken.
“I saw people with no arms or legs. I saw those who could still walk looking like the walking dead.
“Everything, everywhere, dead. I went by car around a city. A dead city. Zero energy.
“We went past a kids’ playground. The toys are lying in that place but no children playing. It was dead.”
All of which goes a long way towards explaining why Tyson Fury’s F-bombs don’t exactly leave Oleksandr Usyk shaking in his boots.
Even strictly within a boxing context, Usyk’s lived experience renders him virtually bulletproof from a psychological standpoint: on his run to the undisputed cruiserweight title between 2017 and 2018, he staged one of the great sporting invasions, beating five of the best boxers in his division in their own backyards: Michael Hunter in America, Marco Huck in Germany, Maris Breidis in Latvia, Murat Gassiev in Russia and Tony Bellew in England.
And Fury, who has emerged from three healthy doses of Deontay Wilder’s prime weaponry undefeated, has no reason to ‘fear’ Usyk, either.
As ‘The Gypsy King’ has been at pains to point out since long before these two men were officially scheduled to engage in unarmed combat, size matters in heavyweight boxing.
Fury has routinely described Usyk as a blown-up middleweight, “a midget”, and other such variants.
Usyk is, of course, a huge man by most of our standards: he stands 6’3, he’s bound by muscle, and weighed in for tonight’s contest at 223.5lbs (101kg/16 stone). But he’s positively dwarfed by Fury (6’9, 262lbs), whose size advantages simply have to play a role in Riyadh tonight.
Incidentally, Fury was almost 16 pounds lighter on the scale on Friday than he was before his most recent bout with Ngannou. He was lighter, in fact, than he has been since he beat Otto Wallin in 2019.
One could look at that in three ways: Fury fancied some additional scope to counteract Usyk’s faster feet, or Fury wanted some extra mobility because he believes he can simply out-box the supposed master boxer, or Fury is simply leaner because he had back-to-back camps on either side of his eye injury which forced the bout’s postponement back in February. (That cut above Fury’s right eye, by the way, could well play a role in this fight: it doesn’t look fully healed and southpaw Usyk will target it with his surgical left hand).
In any case, Fury is still almost 40 pounds heavier than Usyk and is the naturally stronger man, and one suspects his plan will be to tie up Usyk in the clinch, lean on him, and drain the former cruiserweight champion of his energy in the first half of the fight.
That would leave Fury with a more static target down the stretch, when he could potshot from range and also further target the body of a tired Usyk, which has looked like a potential weakness since he’s been up with the big men.
Hey, boxing would be a brilliant profession if the other guy didn’t punch you back. And make no mistake about it: Usyk takes into this bout several of his own advantages.
The most glaring is his footwork, a trait for which all Ukrainian Olympic champions are famed and one which should provide this London 2012 gold medallist with plenty of entry points into the bout from an offensive standpoint.
Usyk’s feet are simply faster and better than Fury’s size 13s. He’ll be able to negate Fury’s seven-inch reach advantage and pivot into positions from which he can pepper Fury’s still-recovering right eye. And he’ll be confident, too, that he’ll have the wheels to prevent Fury from smothering him to a terminal extent in the clinch.
Fury will look to jab and prod and probe from distance to slow the pace to that with which he is cosy. It will be Usyk who brings the fury, and seeks to drag the bigger man into a rhythm beyond that comfort zone.
This will be a high-level chess match between two of the most intuitive boxers the heavyweight division has ever seen, but who is actually the better technical boxer?
You’d find the answer if you shrunk them into middleweights, at which size Oleksandr Usyk would unequivocally win.
In the realm of giants, though, the outcome is far less certain. The boxing world is divided on a fight for which not even the two men in the middle can feel especially confident.
Don’t expect a barnburner: this will be more suspenseful than it is flat-out exciting.
For what it’s worth, this writer fancies Usyk to overcome a tough start and bank enough rounds down the stretch that his arm should be raised by the end of it all.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
preview and prediction