The duel between Tyson Fury and Alexander Usyk has been hyped as a mega-fight for weeks. A record-breaking stare-down was bound to happen.
The duel between Tyson Fury and Alexander Usyk has been hyped as a mega fight for weeks, so a record-breaking stare down was not to be missed: the two heavyweight boxers stood opposite each other for eleven minutes on Thursday, largely without saying a word. On Saturday, the fight will take place in Saudi Arabia for the WBA, WBO and WBC world championship belts.
“There’s been enough talking,“ said Englishman Fury at the press conference, ‘I’ve been talking and joking all my career. This time I mean business. I’ll do some damage, I’ll cause some pain. I’ll put him on the injury list for sure.’
”Everything will happen in the ring on Saturday”
The fight on Saturday is already the rematch. Usyk won the first fight last May, thereby unifying all four relevant world titles and becoming the undisputed heavyweight champion. However, he has since had to give up the IBF belt because he did not want to defend it against a mandatory challenger in the Fury rematch.
In Riyadh, the Ukrainian did not want to respond to his opponent’s provocations. It was just a “show” for the cameras, “on Saturday in the ring, everything will happen”. Usyk had inflicted Fury’s first defeat as a professional boxer in May.