Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk is now less than two weeks away, and ‘The Gypsy King’ is changing his strategy as he bids to become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.
May 18 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia should see one of these two men provide the sport with its first undisputed king in its marquee weight class since Lennox Lewis outpointed Evander Holyfield back in 1999.
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The build-up so far has been a lot of Fury trash talk – calling Usyk ‘a middleweight’ and ‘a rabbit’ among others – but all of a sudden this week that changed.
The 35-year-old man mountain from Morecambe (34-0-1) sat down with Queensberry Promotions on YouTube to talk about his Ukrainian opponent – a 21-0 Olympic champion, an undisputed cruiserweight champion, a unified heavyweight champion and widely accepted as a boxing genius.
It seems that even Fury himself is starting to believe that Usyk is the real deal, talking up the brilliant tactician in that sit-down interview.
Fury praise for ‘elite’ Usyk
He admitted: “Oleksandr Usyk’s a real bad man and to underestimate Usyk you’d be a mug. So I’m training hard for him, I’m doing everything I can. I respect Usyk as a man. I respect his career as well – Olympic champion, undisputed cruiserweight champion, unified heavyweight champion.
“You have to respect that, I’m not fighting some guy who’s had 14 and won 11. I’m fighting the real deal – as real deal as Holyfield. I’m looking forward to the challenge.
“He’s a southpaw, he’s got good footwork so they say, good boxing ability, technically sound. He’s proved he can mix it with the big heavyweights because he’s beat Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois. I’m messing with an elite fighter.”
