The heavyweight undisputed championship fight between unbeaten Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk is one day away.
While many fans feel that the huge goliath-like size of the 6’9″ WBC champion Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) will be too much for the considerably smaller unified three-belt champ Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs), the technical brilliance of the Ukrainian talent is causing many people to side with him to win on Saturday.
Usyk’s Potential Edge: Exploiting Fury’s Mistakes
2012 Olympic gold medalist Usyk’s ability to set a fast pace could be a problem for Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs), who has to lug around more size on his huge frame, and he’s gone through a dramatic weight-loss process with his back-to-back training camps.
Usyk has the ability to expose Fury’s flaws in his game just like his last opponent did. The wins for Usyk over Anthony Joshua, who many feel is the #1 heavyweight on the planet now, show that he’s able to stay out of harm’s way against the very best in the division.
Fury has yet to fight anyone on the level of AJ, and you can’t count his win over 40-year-old Wladimir Klitschko from nine years ago, as he was utterly shot to pieces by that late stage in his career.
The Challenge of Fury’s Size and Style
Fury’s tremendous bulk and skills will be a problem that the 6’3″, 225-lb Usyk must overcome in this fight to get the victory. The Gypsy King is a little taller than AJ, with a longer arm span, and a tendency to use dirty tactics to acquire a win.
Dirty tactics from Fury
- Rabbit punches
- Mauling nonstop
- Elbows
- Low blows
- Shoving
Fury’s style of fighting could make the fight out of this world boring, and it could lead to him getting the win if Usyk isn’t able to handle the Greco-Roman wrestling technique that he’s learned in recent years.
Age has changed the Fury that fans once knew in his early years, turning him into a mauler, who uses his size to grab his opponents and wear them down by forcing them to hold his massive weight.
I liken Fury to a human version of a black hole, where if you pass the event horizon [aka point of no return], there is no escape, forcing his opponents into the singularity, a small mass that is helpless to do anything.
Usyk must avoid allowing Fury to get his hands on him to engulf him in this process. Escaping from Fury’s black hole mass is going to be very difficult for Usyk if the Gypsy King can get his hands on him.
The Referee’s Role and Predictions
I believe the referee will play a critical role in the outcome of the fight because if he allows Fury to hold, wrestle, and use dirty tactics without stepping in to warn or penalize, it’s going to be difficult for Usyk to win.
When a boxer fights a guy who uses MMA, wrestling, or dirty tactics, it’s almost impossible to win without a quality referee who polices these underhanded, below-the-belt tactics.
If the referee is doing the job that he’s paid for, it will favor Usyk to win this fight unless he gets caught by one of Fury’s lethal rabbit punches to the back of the head.
The referee must ensure that Fury isn’t allowed to use his size to smother Usyk by constantly grabbing him, not letting go for extended periods, and using his holding & hitting dirty tactics.
Fight Prediction
Usyk wins a 12-round unanimous decision after putting a tired Fury down with a left to the head in the later rounds. This fight outcome will be decided on Usyk’s high-level that will make a monkey out of Fury, showing that he was always overrated by fans and the media from the jump.
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