Featured Image Credit: boxing_social and Sky Sports
Topics: Boxing, Tyson Fury, Oleksandr Usyk, Anthony Joshua, Eddie Hearn
Chris Byfield
Topics: Boxing, Tyson Fury, Oleksandr Usyk, Anthony Joshua, Eddie Hearn
Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk’s weigh-in featured a major error from officials.
The undefeated Fury and Usyk go toe-to-toe on Saturday to contest an undisputed heavyweight title in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with all four belts on the line.
The winner would be crowned the heavyweight division’s first undisputed champion in the four-belt era and stake a strong claim to being the greatest heavyweight of a generation.
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On Friday a fired-up Fury shoved Usyk in the chest at the weigh-in before the pair were separated by security ahead of the bout.
Fury came in at 18st 7lb (262lb) - his lightest in over four years but still a significant weight advantage over his Ukrainian counterpart.
Meanwhile, there was a major error when it came to announcing Usyk’s weight. The 37-year-old came in at a career-heavy 16st (224lb), though it was incorrectly announced at the weigh-in as 16st 6lb.
WBC champion Fury was in a playful mood, having danced his way onto the stage, obliged to a face-off and then pushed Usyk back, an action which prompted a melee between the two teams.
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"I'm going to knock him right out,” Fury then said, alongside a number of expletives. "I'm coming for his heart. He's getting it tomorrow, spark out. They [his team] can all get it if they want it."
Fury then stormed off the stage.
When asked what he had done to provoke a reaction from Fury, Usyk replied: “Don’t be afraid. I will not leave you alone tomorrow.”
Ahead of the fight Anthony Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, backed Usyk to defeat Fury.
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He told Sky Sports: "What Usyk does so well is adapts, you have to have multiple game plans against Oleksandr Usyk because he can change it up at any time. He can box off the back foot, he can box in a ring within the ring, he can put pressure on you, he can be a volume puncher, he can move, he's got everything.
"I've always got it wrong when I've picked what Tyson Fury is going to do. In the second fight against Deontay Wilder, he said he would go on the front foot and walk him down, that was madness, he did it and it was beautiful tactics.
"I think in this fight with the weight he's going to try and box and move a bit like he did with Klitschko. By doing that he's going to let Usyk walk him down, throw those volume punches and win rounds, you can't just win rounds by flinging out the jab and holding and pot-shotting.
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"Fury might have to change his game plan during the fight. Two great tacticians, two great ring IQs in there, but really difficult to overcome Usyk mentally.
"In there on the night, I remember Tony Bellew saying that he just exhausts you with his pressure and his feet, the way you're always thinking 'what's he going to do next?'"