Tyson Fury has shocked everybody with his appearance in Riyadh this week, to the point some pundits are questioning whether he’s made a mistake.
Even Oleksandr Usyk and his team have reverted from calling ‘The Gypsy King’ ‘greedy belly’, instead now christening him ‘skinny belly’.
Some experts fear Fury’s more toned physique may dilute one of his great advantages in Saturday’s huge heavyweight title unification showdown – his sheer size.
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The 35-year-old Morecambe man (34-0-1) stands some six inches taller than Usyk (21-0), and normally outweighs him by around four stones – almost 60lbs.
We will find out exactly what Fury is walking around at this week when he steps onto the scales for Friday’s weigh-in (6pm UK time, 1300 Eastern Standard Time, 1000 PST). But one man who says all the fears about Fury weight loss are unfounded is Tyson’s trainer Javan ‘Sugar Hill’ Steward.
He says while his man is fitter now (he had looked undercooked in that underwhelming showing vs Francis Ngannou last October), he has not had to drop significant weight to do it.
‘Sugar Hill’ on Fury weight
‘Sugar Hill’ told Sky Sports: “It’s not even that he’s lighter, he’s just more fit. He hasn’t dropped a bunch of weight just to get down low. It’s just weight where he can be stronger and more mobile and agile and everything else. It takes some work to get there and he’s at the point in his life where he wanted to get there. So this is where it’s at.”
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Fury weighed in at just 247lbs when he first became world heavyweight champion by defeating Wladimir Klitschko in his own back yard n 2015. The second time he became king, he was almost 30lbs heavier at 273 for his dominant rematch win over Deontay Wilder in 2020.
‘Sugar Hill’ used that transformation to illustrate his point, saying it was made for a reason. Right now, he has no fears about the shape his man is in.
“Just strong. Very strong to me. It’s not like it’s a weight cut. The way he looks and the way he’s moving and the way he’s boxing, the way he’s punching, all this is because he wants to be better.”
