Tyson’s Fury’s promoter is adamant that his man had Oleksandr Usyk ‘all over the place’ in their undisputed boxing heavyweight showdown back in May and believes the Gypsy King can avenge his defeat to the Ukrainian when they share the ring for the second time on December 21.
Fury‘s reign as WBC and lineal heavyweight champion was ended in Saudi Arabia on May 18 when Usyk scored a ninth round knockdown en route to become the first four-belt undisputed champion. But Queensberry Promotions chief Frank Warren reckons Fury, 36, has already shown that he can hurt the undefeated London 2012 Olympic gold medallist and insists his man did have Usyk in trouble at one stage in their first fight.
Speaking to Sky Sports, he said: “I thought in the seventh round of that fight he [Fury] caught him [Usyk] with a tremendous upper cut and I thought he was going to stop him in the next round,” Warren admitted. “But in the next round, Usyk came out and caught Tyson with a good shot on the nose.
“Tyson lost a lot of his momentum, he kept touching his nose and his eyes, and that was the turning point in the fight. The next round Tyson was in trouble, but Usyk couldn’t finish off the job.
Tyson came through it and even came up with a win in the last round. It was a fight of two halves. He [Tyson] knows what he has to do, can he do it? He’s been in some tough fights, so has Usyk now.
“Usyk has shown he can be hurt – I mentioned that seventh round, where his legs were all over the place when he got caught – and we know he doesn’t like it to the body. Tyson knows that now, so now we see if they can put their respective game-plans into action and do it.”
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