Unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk says he missed out on his daughter’s birth last January due to his training to battle WBC champion Tyson Fury, who was injured and couldn’t face him on the February 17th date.
Sacrifice and Suspicion
Usyk says he believes the 35-year-old Fury is “scared” of fighting him, which is the general belief that fans have, too. Oleksandr says he doesn’t believe Fury was injured by an elbow from his sparring partner. He says the video shows Fury being hit with an uppercut with the fist landing, not the elbow.
There’s fan speculation that the video doesn’t show the instant Fury was injured, as there’s no blood or closeups. It looked like Fury got hit with a big shot and needed a timeout because he got clocked at close range by the short but powerful sparring partner.
The Fury-Usyk undisputed heavyweight clash has now been rescheduled for May 18th at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and the hopes are that Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) doesn’t suffer yet another injury, spoiling the hard work and sacrifice IBF/WBA/WBO champ Usyk is making.
“Scared” Accusations and Fan Sentiment
“It was a punch with a fist. You can see the direction of the elbow. It was following the fist afterward, but it’s difficult to read it from the video,” said Oleksandr Usyk to Boxing King Media when asked if he thinks an elbow caused Tyson Fury’s cut.
Fury looked in good shape in the video, so it is clearly recent footage, but there’s a lot of doubt about this being where the injury occurred. Also, Fury’s cut has moved from the right side to the left side of his eye, making some fans wonder whether the initial photo was doctored.
“You can see there was a clear uppercut [from Fury’s sparring partner], but whether it caused the cut, we don’t know. I don’t know if he wants to fight me or not, but the fact that he’s scared is real,” said Usyk when asked if he thinks Fury is a coward and doesn’t want to fight him.
“A huge gratitude for Mr. Turki for what he’s doing and what he’s sacrificing to make this huge fight happen,” said Usyk, reacting to being told that His Excellency is putting off his treatment for his illness in order to make the Fury-Usyk event happen on May 18th.
