Unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk 21-0 (14) refused to cower to WBC titleholder Tyson Fury 34-0-1 (24) at the London press conference on Thursday to announce their fight at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on February 17.
The fight has been over a year in the making and during that time Fury has not missed an opportunity during interviews and on social media to sledge the WBA, WBO, IBF and Ring Magazine champion.
It didn’t take long for Britain’s Fury, 35, to tell the 36-year-old Ukrainian southpaw what he thought of him to his face at the presser.
“You are all dossers,” Fury said to Usyk and his team consisting of promoter Alex Krassyuk and manager Egis Klimas. “He’s going to get knocked out. And you two are going to work for me slinging my bags.”
“Sausage, ugly little man, rabbit,” Fury continued, much to Usyk’s amusement.
“Enough? My friend, have you stopped? Enough? Have you stopped talking?” he asked.
Fury is coming off arguably the worst performance of his career when he was not only forced to go the distance against boxing debutant and former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou 0-1, but also had to climb off the canvas to eke out a split decision win in their 10-round non-title bout in Saudi Arabia late last month.
Ngannou had little difficultly finding Fury with his punches, particularly from the southpaw stance, and refused to be deceived by the titleholder’s feints.
To add insult to injury, Fury was cut in the second round and finished the fight with bruising and swelling around his left eye.
The tougher than expected bout forced the planned December 23 fight against Usyk to be postponed to give Fury time for his body to heal.
As Fury continued his theatrics at the press conference, some might argue that his exaggerated behaviour was an over-compensation for his poor performance against Ngannou.
“You’re getting smashed to pieces. Sausage. You’re fighting the best British heavyweight there’s ever been,” Fury shouted at Usyk.
“I come here to pick a fight. I didn’t come here to play games. I didn’t get all dressed up for nothing. I come here to fight. You ugly little man.”
When that burst of verbal abuse failed to get a rise out of the always calm Usyk, Fury tried another tack.
“I think he got hit in the body and he didn’t want to get up for five minutes,” Fury said of Usyk’s August win over Daniel Dubois that saw him go down from a beltline blow that was ruled low in the fifth round. “Crying to the referee. That’s what he did.”
Usyk replied: “I absolutely don’t care what Tyson thinks of that.”
Fury attempted to use his size to physically intimidate the smaller Usyk as they faced off for the cameras, leaning over him and getting right up in his face.
The enigmatic Usyk remained at his cryptic best right up until the end.
“I have no goal,” the former undisputed cruiserweight champion said. “Only the way. And my way is ‘The Undisputed’. That is why this was the only fight for me. When that bell rings, I will bring the fire.”
