The great, the good and the not-so-good will convene in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday night as Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk fight for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world.
As the arena lights dim and the world focuses on the two people who really matter, a 77-year-old car-and-horse trader from the south coast of England will climb down from the ring apron and crouch quietly at ringside.
Fury’s cutman, Frank Hopkins, may leave the Kingdom Arena as anonymously as he arrived. He could just as easily end up playing a significant role in one of the biggest fights in boxing history.
“I do what I enjoy with my horses and motors,” Hopkins told BoxingScene. “My son asks me why I keep driving miles around the country, with the boxing and going over to Saudi Arabia. He said I don’t have to do it. I said, ‘Are you mad? I do have to do it. Do you want me to sit in a chair and die?’ I’m 78 this year. I enjoy it.”
The experienced Hopkins began working with Fury for his fight with Dillian Whyte in April 2022 and has remained in place ever since. Hopkins has spent his life involved in the sport and, when he wasn’t working, would pay to watch the biggest fights. He now finds himself at the heart of one of the biggest of all time.
“When I started [with Fury], people would say, ‘Wow, imagine being in that corner?’ Then they’d ask how much I was getting. I didn’t have a clue. It wasn’t even discussed. I’d have done it for nothing. Wembley Stadium, 98,000 people. Can you imagine?” he said.
“When they opened the doors, it all went dark and everyone put their torches on their phones. Unbelievable.
“I’ll get paid this weekend, but I’d pay them to let me do it.”
Fury may play the jester, but he takes his craft extremely seriously.
It is no exaggeration to say that his position in boxing history – not to mention hundreds of millions of dollars – may well end up in Hopkins’ hands on Saturday night. He and his team wouldn’t entrust such an important job to somebody they didn’t have full belief in, and Hopkins has proven himself under pressure time and time again.
Back in 2018, Terry Flanagan returned to the corner with a deep gash on his forehead during the early stages of his WBO junior welterweight title fight with Maurice Hooker. Hopkins cleaned the cut, applied pressure and felt his finger touch his fighter’s skull. He calmly kept Flanagan in the fight until the final bell. Just last weekend, Hopkins was at work in the East End of London as his young hope, Ryan Garner, picked up a couple of cuts during his exciting 10-round victory over Liam Dillon.
“All I’ve had to deal with [with Fury] is just a closed eye,” Hopkins said. “I had to keep opening the eye against Francis Ngannou. At the end of the fight, he was being interviewed and it was closing. I opened it up again, and he said, ‘Thanks for that, Frank, and I thought you did a good job in the ring.’ People didn’t realize it had started to close up.
“He does as he’s told [in the corner]. He’s sitting on a 4-foot stool, so instead of ducking under the top rope, I have to go over it. He’s talking to SugarHill, and his back is sort of to me. If I have to say, ‘Ty, can I look at your face?’ Straight away, he does it. No ifs or buts. Honestly, he’s easy in the corner.”
Although, so far Hopkins hasn’t been required to reach into his toolkit for anything other than an enswell, he may find himself checking and double-checking that his swabs and Vaseline are close at hand this weekend
Fury barely took a shot as he dictated the pace and range of his fights with Whyte and Dereck Chisora. And although he was floored by Ngannou, the boxing novice landed only 59 punches over the course of their fight. Usyk is almost certain to land at a much higher clip.
The damage caused by the horrendous cut Fury suffered against Otto Wallin back in 2019 will provide cause for concern for as long as he continues boxing, and Hopkins has a new piece of scar tissue to contend with this weekend.
The fight with Usyk was, of course, originally scheduled to take place on Feb. 17, but it was postponed after Fury picked up a nasty cut over his right eye during sparring. The cut required 11 stitches but appears – from a distance – to have healed perfectly.
A cutman’s primary job is to keep their boxer in a fight for as long as they can, but the unsaid part of their role is to instill confidence in the fighter. Hopkins surveyed the damage just a few weeks into the healing process and saw enough to reassure Fury that everything would be fine on Saturday night.
“I was out in Saudi doing Nick Ball and Roman Fury [in March], and [Tyson Fury] came into the dressing room,” Hopkins said. “We had a bit of a laugh, and I took him over to one side and had a look at his eye. I’m always confident about things anyway, but even then I told him I thought it’d be alright but not to worry. If it comes open, it’ll be good for me because I’ll get on telly and it’ll make me look good. He started laughing.
“Of course it wasn’t 100 percent at the time, but that was a long time ago. And by the time of the fight, it will be.”
Saturday’s fight is being billed as the biggest and most significant fight for a quarter of a century, but rather than bowing under the pressure, history suggests that Fury and Usyk will rise to the occasion.
Realizing that any attempt to instigate a phony war during the fight week would be a waste of time, both Fury and Usyk have elected to save their energy for the fight.
The complex Fury revels in the spotlight and comes alive on fight night. Once the dressing room door shuts, he takes it upon himself to set the tone for the evening. Hopkins has seen how Fury thrives amid big-time atmospheres and feels that he is built to succeed on the grandest stage of all.
“It’s a mad, family-oriented affair. That’s what he wants and that’s how he likes it. It works. We all gather ‘round before we go out, and say the Lord’s prayer,” Hopkins said.
“It’s fun. It’s non-stop laughing and shouting. Fury won’t let you be down. You have to be happy and jumping up and down. He’s taking the piss out of you, calling everyone dossers. It’s a good dressing room.
“You will not get into his head. I think we’re favorites, but people will say that I’m only saying that because I’m in the corner. It’s a hard fight, but I just think he’s too big. I don’t usually believe that a good big ‘un will always beat a good little ‘un. Nobody could beat Rocky Marciano and nobody could beat Mike Tyson. Those were little ’uns. They were 14 or 15 stone. This one [Usyk] is 16 stone. I think Fury’s an exceptional big ‘un, though.
“I don’t care if he outboxes him,” Hopkins said of Fury. “I don’t care if he knocks him out. I don’t care if he mauls him. Just win.”
Read the full article here
