Tyson Fury has a big problem on his hands against the slick, athletic unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday night.
WBC champion Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) has got to find a way to nullify the IQ and slickness of IBF/WBA/WBO champ Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs), who is technically far superior to him in ability and athleticism.
Dirty Boxing: Fury’s Last Resort?
The physical Kronk gym style that trainer Sugarhill Steward has given Fury, involving a lot of mauling and roughhouse tactics, is not going to work against a mobile heavyweight with actual talent.
That style has worked against the sub-level fringe-contender fighters that Fury has been fighting for the last four years, but it might not work against a talent like Usyk.
I think will likely throw the rule book out the window and go purely primitive against Usyk, and use these dirty tactics to try and win on Saturday night:
- Rabbit punches
- Holding & Hitting
- Throwing elbows
- Leaning
- Grappling
- Low blows
Usyk: Lomachenko 2.0, but Supersized
Usyk is like a bigger version of Vasily Lomachenko, and he’s facing an aging Fury, who hasn’t fought a true top-notch fighter in nine years.
Since coming back from his 2 1/2-year victory lap after his win over 40-year-old Klitschko in 2015, Fury’s only top-tier opponents are these lesser guys:
– Deontay Wilder
– Dillian Whyte
– Otto Wallin
– Dereck Chisora
“He’s the biggest most athletic I’ve ever seen, and I think anyone has ever seen,” said boxing expert Chris Algieri to Probox TV, talking about Tyson Fury. “We’re looking at a guy that is 6’9”, 280+ lbs.
“He’s a very physical, very athletic guy. He’s got great head movement, quick hands. Since hooking up with the Kronk Gym [trainer Sugarhill Steward], he’s become more offensive and getting some knockouts.”
The way I see it, Fury is going to make it a dirty fight where he looks to hammer Usyk into submission by holding & hitting, which worked like a charm for him against Sam Cunningham or rabbit punching. He used that to subdue Deontay Wilder in their second fight.
“He’s never really been a big puncher. He doesn’t have a single-punch guy, but he’s a tricky puncher. He sets traps, and he has a high boxing IQ, but the physicality, that’s the thing.
“For him to be victorious in this fight, he’s going to have to nullify all the slickness, all the IQ of Usyk,” said Algieri.
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