WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury says he’s occupying unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk’s mind ahead of their undisputed fight on Saturday night in Riyadh.
Fans question whether that’s the case. Throughout the buildup, Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) has tried mind-game tactics that have worked to rile past opponents, but they have fallen flat with Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs).
What seems obvious is the worry that Fury for this fight because he’s poised to make gazillions fighting Anthony Joshua in a mega-fight because that match-up could be badly tarnished if he’s defeated by Usyk this Saturday night.
A humiliating defeat for Fury would undermine the chances of a clash against Joshua in December or clearly next year.
Usyk’s Unwavering Focus
The 2012 Olympic gold medalist and former undisputed cruiserweight champion Usyk made light of Fury’s mind-game tactics in a recent interview.
Usyk made it clear that Fury’s antics aren’t registering with him, and he’s fully focused on the job at hand on Saturday night, defeating the unbeaten WBC champion to become the undisputed champion in their PPV fight at the Kingdom Arena.
Fury has picked the wrong guy to try to mentally throw off, considering Usyk is the one who tends to do this to his opponents.
So for Fury to be trying those tactics with him, it’s child’s play to turn the tables on the worried, aging fighter, who some feel cut himself last February he knew he wasn’t nearly ready to take on the master boxer.
A Sign of Desperation?
Many feel that Fury’s comments are a pathetic sign of worry and pure desperation, knowing this could be the end for him. The jig is finally up.
His promoters have done a captain’s job of taking this far, matching him carefully, creating false, cartoon image of Fury being an invincible fighter that is the #1 heavyweight in the division.
That match-making they’ve done for Fury can’t save him now, as His Excellency is put this fight together and this could be the end for the 35-year-old.
“I’m living in his mind rent-free, for sure. People say, ‘You can’t get in his mind.’ I’m already in his mind,” said Tyson Fury to Charlie Parson’s YouTube channel, talking about Usyk.
“He thinks about me every time he gets up in the morning. Every time he closes his eyes, his heart beats out of his body, thinking about the Gypsy King.
“Every time he brushes his teeth or takes a p*** he thinks about me and my fat body, and he knows I’m coming for him. I’m in his mind rent-free; I’m living in his head.”
Fury’s babble is more a signal of a last ditch effort to try and throw Usyk off by chattering nonsense with the hope that some of it will stick in his mind, causing him to fight at less than optimal effort. The Gypsy King needs some kind of advantage in this fight because he’s not facing journeymen Dereck Chisora, Dillian Whyte, or the novice Francis Ngannou on Saturday night.
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