The co-promoter of WBC heavyweight titleholder Tyson Fury 34-0-1 (24) has rubbished claims his boxer was struggling in training for his now postponed bout against WBA, WBO, IBF and Ring Magazine champion Oleksandr Usyk 21-0 (14).
Britain’s Fury, 35, suffered a nasty cut over his right eye in one of his final sparring session two weeks out from the scheduled February 17 date in Saudi Arabia, forcing his bout against Ukrainian southpaw Usyk, 37, to be rescheduled to May 18.
Fury’s co-promoter Frank Warren addressed some of the rumour doing the rounds.
“Cuts and blood always look bad wherein a couple of weeks they can look much different,” the Queensberry Promotions boss said on the Toe2Toe podcast. “If he’s confident, I’m confident. He’s not going to set himself a date that’s going to fall apart.
“We’ve got governing bodies pressurising because they want to see the belts being fought for so it’s a matter of it has to happen on that date. I’m quite confident it will do.
“He’s had bad cuts before. He feels that it will be healed up in the next couple of months and that will give him six weeks preparation.
“Contrary again to all the ridiculous rumors he was in magnificent shape. You’ve only got to look at some of the photos of him to see. He’s now got another date to aim for and that’s where he’s at.
“I think the general mood of the camp is they can build on all the good work they’ve done. It’s not unusual in boxing. There are stacks of fights over the years that have been delayed.”
Warren hinted that Usyk is a frontrunner who looks for the referee’s intervention when the going gets tough. As an example, Warren cited the unified champion’s last bout against Daniel Dubois 20-2 (19).
In the fifth round of that fight a right hand to the body from Dubois sent Usyk to the canvas. Referee Luis Pabon ruled the blow low and Usyk was given a full five minutes to recover. Usyk would go on to win by ninth-round knockout.
Warren, who promotes Dubois, believes the blow was legal and unsuccessfully petitioned the WBA to overturn the result.
The veteran promoter believes Usyk has chinks in his armour that Fury will be able to exploit.
“He has previously… complaining and moaning when he gets caught to the body,” Warren said. “Now he’s in there with a guy who is the master of taking advantage of any weakness.
“He does it a lot, Usyk, he ‘crybabies’ to the ref. He’s had previous for it about body shots. As long as the referee’s strong in there I’m really happy and I’m even more confident in Tyson in this fight than I was prior to [Usyk] fighting Daniel Dubois.”
