BEFORE their press convention devolved into unusual exchanges of one-word solutions, Tyson Fury acknowledged yesterday that he’s extra centered and fewer complacent forward of his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk than he was earlier than their first struggle.
Morecambe’s Fury, 36, and Ukraine’s Usyk, 37, had been in London to advertise their second heavyweight title bout, which can happen December 21 at Kingdom Enviornment in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. For Fury, it is a chance to regain his WBC heavyweight title and take the WBA, WBO and IBO belts from Usyk, who gained their preliminary 12-round bout by cut up choice Might 18 at Kingdom Enviornment.
Most (U.S) sportsbooks have put in Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) as virtually a 2-1 favorite to defeat Fury (34-4-1, 24 KOs) of their instant rematch.
“It’s truly been about four-and-a-half years – [it] was the [Deontay] Wilder [rematch], the final time I used to be the underdog in these fights,” mentioned Fury, who was a slight favorite versus Usyk 5 months in the past. “What’s going via me thoughts? I’m simply trying ahead to a implausible struggle. You realize, final time, in Might, it was a implausible struggle. Oleksandr gained the struggle honest and sq.. I’m simply seeking to placed on an important struggle once more.
“You realize, it was very shut final time. He obtained it by a degree. I’m a little bit bit extra centered, a little bit bit extra lack of complacency. And I ought to do the job, what I have to do. You realize, it’s nothing drastic has to vary – a bit extra of the identical. A bit bit extra centered, like I say. And I might be victorious.”
Canadian choose Craig Metcalfe scored Fury a 114-113 winner over Usyk on Might 18. Wisconsin’s Mike Fitzgerald (114-113) and Spain’s Manuel Oliver Palomo (115-112) scored their carefully contested struggle for Usyk, who was credited with a knockdown in the course of the ninth spherical.
Usyk grew to become boxing’s first absolutely unified heavyweight champ of the four-belt period. He has since given up the IBF belt, now owned by London’s Daniel Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs).
Frank Warren, Fury’s co-promoter, is assured Fury will go away the ring with Usyk’s titles this time round.
“It was a powerful struggle – unbelievably, top-quality heavyweight bout,” Warren mentioned yesterday. “And the following one is gonna be, I feel, each bit pretty much as good, if not higher, as a result of they’ve been within the ring with one another.
“They’ve shared that ring and now they’ve obtained respect for one another. And I do know they’ll be in search of clues to try to negate what they really feel the opposite man’s greatest strikes might be and so forth. However what? It’s simply gonna be nice. It’s gonna be nice. And I imagine in Tyson. I believed in him from day one. And I imagine he can go and do that, and do his enterprise in model.”
