Weights: Fury 257, Ustinov 280

By Boxing News - 07/25/2014 - Comments

ustinovBy Scott Gilfoid: Tyson Fury (22-0, 16 KOs) weighed in at 257 pounds today at the weigh-in for his fight on Saturday night against replacement opponent Alexander Ustinov (29-1, 21 KO’s) at the Phones 4U Arena in Manchester, UK.

What’s interesting here is that the 37-year-old Ustinov, who usually looks kind of flabby, appeared to be in better shape than Fury in weighing in at 280 pounds. Fury had visible fat around the sides of his waist.

I’m sure he tried to get rid of the fat, but he obviously needed more aerobic conditioning to burn the excess 10-15 pounds of fat that he has stored in that area of his body. Fury is pretty much a 240 pound heavyweight when you take away the fat. Ustinov looks to be more of a 260+ heavyweight when you strip off the excess fat he’s carrying.

There really wasn’t much of a stare down, as both guys kind of stood facing the crowd with Fury turning his head to Ustinov to jaw at him. It looked like Fury was trying his best to intimidate Ustinov with his trash talking. Unfortunately, it didn’t appear to work, as I’m not sure how good Ustinov’s command of the English language is.

Ustinov had the look of someone that was just glad to get the fight, and he wasn’t going to jump all over him. I mean, Fury gave Ustinov the opportunity for the fight, so naturally he isn’t going to jump all over someone that threw a bone to him by giving him a chance for the payday. Of course, once they get in the ring, Ustinov’s niceness will melt away and we’ll see him get mean with Fury.

For the 6’7 ½” Ustinov, this was the second lowest weight of his career and a clear sign that he’s taking his conditioning seriously at this point in his career. Ustinov had been in Dereck Chisora’s camp working as a sparring partner for him recently. It’s a good thing he’d been staying active because it kept him in shape, and gave him this opportunity to fight Fury.

The lowest weight of Ustinov’s career was in May 2005 when he scaled 269 for his fight against Aleh Tsukanau. Ustinov stopped him in the 3rd round and looked impressive in that fight.

This could be bad for Fury that Ustinov is in such good shape because we very well might see an upset on Saturday night with Ustinov using his superior skills and power to knock the flabby looking Fury out in front of his own fans in Manchester.

In the co-feature, Billy Joe Saunders and his opponent Emanuele Blandamura both weighed in at 159 pounds. They’ll be fighting for the vacant European middleweight strap.



Comments are closed.