The father of WBC heavyweight titleholder Tyson Fury 34-0-1 (24) is refusing to tip a winner in his son’s upcoming undisputed title fight against WBA, WBO, IBF and Ring Magazine champion Oleksandr Usyk 21-0 (14) that is set down to take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on February 17.
The 35-year-old Brit recently said that fighting for the undisputed championship doesn’t motivate him as he had already scaled the highest mountain when he defeated Wladimir Klitschko 64-5 (53) for the WBA, WBO and IBF titles in Germany eight years ago.
His father John Fury took issue with the comments.
“Doesn’t care about undisputed? Well if he doesn’t care about undisputed, why is he fighting then? For the money?” he told The Hook.
“That’s not Tyson. He will care and if he doesn’t, good luck to Usyk.
“If he doesn’t care, if he comes in with that attitude, he’s not bothered, then it’s good luck to Usyk. I am one of them… if he gets beat I’ll say he gets beat.
“But once Tyson’s head is on, Usyk’s not the man to do it.”
Fury had a tougher than expected battle against boxing debutant and former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou 0-1 in their 10-round non-title bout in Saudi Arabia on October 28.
In that fight Fury had to climb off the canvas in the third round to eke out a disputed split decision win.
While Cameroon-Frenchman Ngannou, 37, was able to push Fury back, undefeated Ukrainian southpaw Usyk, 36, will present a different set of problems.
With his quick feet and fast hands, the former undisputed cruiserweight champion is expected to keep the naturally larger man turning while peppering him with shots.
Fury will need to be in better physical and mental shape for the challenge than he was against Ngannou, with rumours rife he failed to take his training camp seriously enough.
John Fury says he has no inside knowledge of how his son’s camps are run by trainer SugarHill Steward, who he has butted heads with in the past.
“People think I know what’s going on in the training camps, but I don’t,” he said.
“I don’t have anything to do with it. I should do – but they don’t listen to daddy. I know what you’ve got to do for this one. You’ve got to go down a different road completely.
“Tyson will have the eye of the tiger back for this one, he’ll need to change everything round.
“He’ll need to do everything different and gain some solid muscle and put some work in – crack his balls working and when he does that, Usyk’s going to have a problem. He won’t be facing this negative Tyson that you saw with a shit game plan.
“I’m going to say it first. Whoever puts the best camp in and does the work will get it and deserve it. If Usyk puts a better camp in that Tyson, he works his arse off, he gets everything right, the better man will win.
“It’s up to both guys what they want out of this. Tyson knows he needs an 180 degree turnaround. If he’s not prepared to do that, good luck to Usyk.”
