Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk will not happen on February 17, and at last we have some reaction from the Ukrainian genius.
Usyk (21-0) was just over two weeks out from potentially completing his life goal of unifying the world title belts at both cruiserweight and heavyweight. But then Fury (34-0-1) sustained ‘a freak cut’ in sparring on Friday. The bout was postponed and will now go ahead on Saturday May 18.
The aftermath saw boxing social media go into meltdown, with acrimony and conspiracy theories aplenty, but Usyk remained largely silent as he waited for the dust to settle. He did though say he was not surprised by what had unfolded. Now though he has broken that silence.
Usyk on Fury postponement
He told Boxing King Media: “I came back home and thought that I will see my [new] daughter earlier than I expected. But come on, I feel okay, I’m not upset.
“I trust in God, and whichever way he is leading me is the best way for me. The game has already started and whatever is written for the future is already written.”
Usyk was asked for his take on the video which appears to show Fury being cut, and explained: “It was a punch with a fist, you can see that the direction of the elbow is following the fist afterwards but it is difficult to read it from the video.
“You see that there is a clear uppercut – a very clear one – but whether it caused the cut, we don’t know.”
Fury is scared – Usyk
The other major narrative since that postponement has seen a war of words between Fury and Usyk’s manager, Egis Klimas. It erupted on Saturday as the various parties appeared on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Hour to announce the rescheduled date.
Usyk was asked for his take on all of that and he had a very simple message.
“I don’t know whether he [Fury] wants to fight me or not, but the fact that he is scared is real.”
