Tyson Fury is promising to bring a different demeanor to his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk on December 21.
The former WBC heavyweight champion (34-1-1, 24 KOs) suffered a knockdown and a split-decision loss to Usyk in May, when the Ukrainian outlanded him 170 to 157 over 12 rounds by overcoming a serious size disadvantage with precision, power and speed over the second half of the fight.
Although the blemish will forever exist on Fury’s record, the “Gypsy King” still doesn’t believe it belongs on his resume.
“I didn’t think he beat me last time, and I’m damn sure not going to let him beat me this time,” Fury told IFL. “I’ve got to knock Usyk out, and I’ll be training for a good knockout. I’ll get it like I did [in the second fight versus Deontay Wilder in 2020]. And that’s what I will do. I said I was going to knock [Wilder] out, and I did.
“I’m going to knock this c*** out this time, and I will. Believe it first. See it first in your mind, and execute it out there. I can’t take anything away from the ugly bastard Usyk. I can’t say that I didn’t prepare or do any training. I did what I had to do. He’s got the decision over me, and we got to run it back.
“It makes sense to do the rematch and get my victory back. I’ve gotten past the point of really caring. It probably took that decision to wake me up and give me the type of aggression back where I want to smash someone in.”
With Fury’s loss to Usyk, the long-planned all-British battle against Anthony Joshua suffered another serious setback. Joshua then seriously compounded matters again on September 21 by losing via fifth-round knockout to Daniel Dubois, in what represented the fourth loss of his career.
Fury, who fights Usyk again in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, insisted that he’s not concerned about the lucrative clash against Joshua while Usyk awaits.
“I have somebody [in Usyk] who has a win over me, who broke me and took my virginity, and stole it back to wherever he lives,” he said. “That’s what I am concerned about. I’m not concerned about [Joshua] and what he is doing. I’ve got a man holding my balls, let’s just say, for the moment.”
Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer and broadcast reporter whose work has appeared on ESPN, Fox Sports, USA Today, The Guardian, Newsweek, Men’s Health, NFL.com, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Ring Magazine and more. He has been writing for BoxingScene since 2018. Manouk is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.
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