Oleksandr Usyk is unconcerned about 6’9″ Tyson Fury’s size advantage in their heavyweight clash on February 17th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Usyk believes his speed and agility are enough to defeat the 270+ lb behemoth Fury.
Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) and his fans believe his size will carry the day, but Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs) views himself as a wolf in this encounter, and he plans on taking advantage of his fat, slow prey.
“Fast and Quick Wins, Not Weight”: Usyk’s Philosophy
“We are going to be the ones leaning on Fury. To win this, I don’t need to be heavy; I need to be fast and quick. You never see a fat wolf in the forest,” said Usyk to RingMagazine.
Usyk seems very wolf-like heading into this fight, going after his fattened-up prey, Fury, who seems to have lost the edge that he once had due to the untold millions stuffed into his bank account over the last four years. That dough has softened up Fury for Usyk.
Fury’s game will be the same one that he’s used in his last four fights. He’ll be looking to grab, hold, and lean on Usyk to wear down his legs.
The approach worked for Fury against Deontay Wilder, Dillian Whyte, and Derek Chisora but failed in his last fight against the powerful Ngannou, who was too strong for him. All of them were low-quality fighters.
Yes, even Wilder was a marginal fighter with a built-up record against lesser fighters before facing Fury and being exposed by him.
The thing is, Fury is a lesser fighter as well, and Usyk will shine a spotlight on him to show the fans that they’d been deceived all these years, mistakenly believing that he was pure 24K gold when, in reality, he was just shiny yellow pyrite.
Fury’s Reliance on Size?
Oleksandr showed in his fight against the much larger 6’6″ Anthony Joshua that size did not affect him. Usyk utilized speed and movement to outbox Joshua, beating him twice and avoiding his big power shots.
Those fights showed that size has no bearing in a fight involving a mobile fighter with speed, and that’s something that Fury, his team, and fans fail to understand.
Fury can’t punch, so his size is useless unless Usyk stands still all night and lets him grab and maul him the way he did in his three fights with Wilder.