“Do you want to gain weight?” Promoter Oleksandr Usyk, Alex Krassyuk asks Tyson Fury during the rematch showdown between the two top heavyweights on December 21st.
“No, I want to box, like I used to [in the first fight],” Fury replied.
“Speed,” said Frank Warren of Queensberry Promotions, Fury’s promoter.
Trust them at your own risk. in a recent interview Speaking to BoxNation, Fury said he plans to compete at 21 stone, or 294 pounds. In his first fight with Usyk, he weighed in at 262 pounds.
Ahead of his second fight with Deontay Wilder, Fury promised to knock out his opponent and knock him out himself. People thought he was crazy and just trying to fulfill his promise.
As the Usyk rematch approaches, Fury’s conflicting message is a welcome reminder that we should not only take everything he says with a grain of salt, but with a grain of salt.
Psychological warfare has always been an integral part of the Rage experience. Before his 2015 fight with then-long-time champion Wladimir Klitschko, he seemed visibly upset vallard Tells a simple story: He outlived him in a sauna many years ago. Anger may unleash a barrage of intense trash talk at one moment, only to turn serious or even friendly the next.
Even after all these years of Fury’s mind games, it’s hard to tell which one he’s playing now. The prospect of Fury weighing over 290 pounds certainly shows that he does no Want to box.
but during interview During the press conference ahead of the Usyk-Fury rematch, Fury explained in detail why he only needs to make some minor adjustments in the rematch. He rightly points out that people with more aggression and firmer punches than him have tried to beat Usyk and failed, and he’s had a lot of success in boxing, so why change? Fury looks serious when it comes to breaking down his fighting style.
So, the possibilities are: Fury has changed his mind since then; he’s outright lying; he’s now lying about his weight; or, somehow, he does intend to box despite gaining 30 pounds Contest.
Yes, I’m as lost as you are. My theory? Fury did his best to convince Usyk and the public that he would box again while secretly planning to rough up Usyk, contrary to his testimony at the press conference. Fury also had a lot of success in his first fight with Wilder and ditched his tactics in the rematch, so this wouldn’t be out of character for him. But Usyk is a completely different opponent than Wilder, and more importantly, I don’t know which of Fury’s quotes to believe.
But Fury also seems to want to be unpredictable. He certainly knows that no one will believe him when he says he’s going to knock out Wilder, which makes this strategy all the more surprising and effective when he actually employs it. Once again, only Fury knew if he was telling the truth.
