Tyson Fury has fired back at Oleksandr Usyk’s team after he was compared to Vladimir Putin.
Fury and Usyk will collide once again on 21 December in Saudi Arabia after ‘The Gypsy King’ suffered the first defeat of his career against the Ukrainian in May.
The war of words between the two recommenced this week with Fury blasting his rival along with his promoter Alexander Krassyuk and manager Egis Klimas.
While Usyk played it cool in his response, Klimas fired back at Fury, insisting the Briton ‘sounds like Putin’.
The former WBC heavyweight champion is locked away in fight camp but took a night off on Saturday to attend the Nick Ball vs Ronny Rios fight in Liverpool, with his cousin Walter Fury fighting on the undercard.
Speaking to Queensberry Promotions during the broadcast, Fury acknowledged Klimas’ comments and repeated his Tupac-inspired dig at his rival and his team.
‘I know his team are a little bit upset, they’ve even compared me to Vladimir Putin today. I’m not sure why,’ Fury said. ‘But I’ve been listening to Tupac so Egis, f**k you, f**k your team, f**k Usyk, f**k Alex [Krassyuk] and if you’re down with Usyk well f**k you too.’
Elsewhere during TNT Sports’ live coverage of Saturday’s boxing, Laura Woods was forced to apologise to viewers after Fury called Uysk a ‘motherf****r’ on live TV.
After watching his cousin Walter pick up the win in front of his delighted family members, Fury was invited from ringside to join Woods, Steve Bunce and former world champion Anthony Crolla on stage to discuss December’s fight.
‘I’ve always been a bad man my whole life and I’m still one today at nearly 40 years old. Few years off 40, but still, I like to say that, it sounds more,’ Fury said.
‘However, I’m going to go in there with destroy mode. Last time I went to box him and I was being cautious.
‘I was boxing the head right off him, let’s talk facts. Anyone can get caught as we’ve seen in a lot of these heavyweight fights. But this time I’m not going for a points decision. I’m going to knock a motherf***r out. I’m not even sure if you can say that on TNT.’
Woods swiftly swooped in with the presenter apologising to viewers.
‘It might be past the watershed, but I probably do have to apologise for a couple of people watching if you’re offended by that. It is Tyson Fury though, so you might get a bit of that anyway.’
Fury then urged anyone who didn’t like his language to ‘change the channel’. ‘I will apologise for my behaviour. If you don’t like it, change the channel!’