Oleksandr Usyk isn’t surprised to hear Tyson Fury showering him with praise this week instead of bashing him like he’d been doing during the entire build-up to this Saturday night’s undisputed heavyweight championship.
Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs) feels that Fury is “bipolar”, and changes his view about things from week to week. He says he’s not paying attempting to what Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) because he’s focused on winning on Saturday night in their headliner on ESPN+ PPV at the Kingdom Arena.
I don’t see it as Fury being “bipolar.” This is all a strategy to build Usyk up in case things go crashing down for the 35-year-old ‘Gypsy King’ on Saturday night.
This is what many fighters have done in the past before fights to limit the backlash they receive.
If you build a fighter up to be a superb talent, you take as much heat when you get whipped compared to what you would if you downgraded the guy. What this shows is Fury isn’t entirely confident of victory because if he was, he’d be bragging about how easy this fight is going to be.
Fury’s “Bipolar” Behavior
“Bipolar a little bit. One week, Tyson says, ‘Rabbit, bad guy, light heavy, blah-blah-blah,’ and then the next week, he says, ‘Good boxer.’ A lot of good words for me. I don’t think about it. My focus is only on the fight,” said Usyk to Charlie Parson’s YouTube channel, when asked about his thoughts on Tyson Fury changing his time, complimenting him in the media.
Fury has been pouring on the compliments for the last two weeks, laying them on thick, and that ain’t a sign of bipolar behavior. He’s been consistent lately, which can only mean one thing.
Fury is worried and wants to make sure that Usyk is viewed in the most favorable light so that he’s not blasted by fans when he loses the fight, because he’s probably going to get beat.
“One of Krassyuk’s team got in the face of John Fury. He told me they were insulting his son, insulting his family, and dropped his head on him,” said British journalist Gareth A. Davies to BoxNation, discussing the head-butting incident involving Tyson’s 59-year-old papa, John Fury.
Gareth has got it wrong. If you look at the replay of the head-butting incident, the guy that John Fury attacked wasn’t involved at all in the back-and-forth. John had been talking to another member of Usyk’s team. He then saw another Usyk team member and head-butted him.
The Head-Butting Incident: A Preemptive Strike?
“This is about confrontation. John told me that he only does things for a reason. There’s always a reason behind him doing things. He didn’t do it for no reason. John looks like he took a preemptive strike in some way,’ said Gareth.
“He looks very focused, very, very well, and very fit,” said Gareth, speaking about Fury in glowing terms. “He’s got the handsome look about him at the moment. I think he’s ready. I hate to say the eye cut did him a favor, but it allowed him more time to sharpen himself. But I also got to say that Usyk looks amazing too.”
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