By Scott Gilfoid: Tyson Fury (22-0, 16 KOs) is talking tough about knocking out his new opponent Alexander Ustinov (29-1, 21 KOs) this Saturday night at the Phones 4U Arena in Manchester, UK. Fury, 25, points out that he’s facing Ustinov without any preparation for him at all in terms of sparring partners and training.
Fury says he hasn’t sat down to watch any of Ustinov’s fights. Instead, he’s just going to come out there and treat it like it’s a backyard rumble when he gets inside the ring with the big 300 pound fighter from Belarus.
Ustinov is taking the injured Dereck Chisora’s place for the fight. He was gracious enough to come in and take the fight at the last minute.
“Good fight, good test for me. Short notice, no sparring, no preparation,” Fury said to IFL TV. “But do I give an [expletive]? I don’t think so. I could have taken a journeyman on, but I trained for a good man, so that’s what I want to do. He’s [Ustinov] not easy pickings. He’s as big as me, heavier than me, and he’s got a better record than I have. He has more knockouts than I have fights. This is going to be a backyard rumble, and you better not blink because once I detonate on him, he’s not getting up. If he detonates on me, I’ll probably get up. I guarantee you he doesn’t get up after I hit him. He’ll stay hit. If I do [knock him out], I’ll do; if I don’t, I’ll probably get knocked out. They’re trying to put me out of boxing anyways, so good riddance.”
Fury isn’t a puncher, and I don’t know what he’s talking about in bragging about how he’s going to KO Ustinov. Believe, if anyone is getting knocked out in this fight, it’s going to be Fury. Ustinov has a little bit of pop in his punches and he’s beaten the likes of Monte Barrett, Michael Sprott, Denis Bakhtov and David Tua. He gave Pulev a lot of problems before getting stopped in the 11th round in 2012. That was not an easy fight for Pulev by any stretch of the imagination.
If Fury gets in Ustinov’s power alley on Saturday night, I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if Fury’s on the canvas picking up his teeth afterwards because Ustinov can really punch when he’s got a guy that comes to him without trying to be tricky.
For all Fury’s bold talk, I doubt that he’ll be looking to slug with Ustinov in this fight. I mean, Fury talks a good game, but he seldom backs it up. He’s more of a slapper than a slugger. But even with Fury trying to slap at Ustinov, he’s going to be getting hit with some tremendous shots from him in this fight. Fury better hope that his chin has improved since he was dropped by Steve Cunningham last year, because Ustinov has the kind of power that can end things early if he lands just right.
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