BEFORE their press conference devolved into strange exchanges of one-word answers, Tyson Fury acknowledged yesterday that he is more focused and less complacent ahead of his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk than he was before their first fight.
Morecambe’s Fury, 36, and Ukraine’s Usyk, 37, were in London to promote their second heavyweight title bout, which will take place December 21 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. For Fury, it is an opportunity to regain his WBC heavyweight title and take the WBA, WBO and IBO belts from Usyk, who won their initial 12-round bout by split decision May 18 at Kingdom Arena.
Most (U.S) sportsbooks have installed Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) as almost a 2-1 favourite to defeat Fury (34-4-1, 24 KOs) in their immediate rematch.
“It’s actually been about four-and-a-half years – [it] was the [Deontay] Wilder [rematch], the last time I was the underdog in these fights,” said Fury, who was a slight favourite versus Usyk five months ago. “What’s going through me mind? I’m just looking forward to a fantastic fight. You know, last time, in May, it was a fantastic fight. Oleksandr won the fight fair and square. I’m just looking to put on a great fight again.
“You know, it was very close last time. He got it by a point. I’m a little bit more focused, a little bit more lack of complacency. And I should do the job, what I need to do. You know, it’s nothing drastic has to change – a bit more of the same. A little bit more focused, like I say. And I will be victorious.”
Canadian judge Craig Metcalfe scored Fury a 114-113 winner over Usyk on May 18. Wisconsin’s Mike Fitzgerald (114-113) and Spain’s Manuel Oliver Palomo (115-112) scored their closely contested fight for Usyk, who was credited with a knockdown during the ninth round.
Usyk became boxing’s first fully unified heavyweight champ of the four-belt era. 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 confident Fury will leave the ring with Usyk’s titles this time around.
“It was a magnificent fight – unbelievably, top-quality heavyweight bout,” Warren said yesterday. “And the next one is gonna be, I think, every bit as good, if not better, because they’ve been in the ring with each other.
“They’ve shared that ring and now they’ve got respect for each other. And I know they’ll be looking for clues to try and negate what they feel the other guy’s best moves will be and so forth. But you know what? It’s just gonna be great. It’s gonna be great. And I believe in Tyson. I believed in him from day one. And I believe he can go and do this, and do his business in style.”