Tyson Fury has disclosed his plans to retain the same team for his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk, despite calls for his father’s removal from his corner.
Usyk, the Ukrainian boxer, made history by becoming the first man to defeat ‘The Gypsy King’ in a professional match in May. The 37-year-old secured a split-decision victory in Riyadh, with the ninth round proving pivotal when Usyk landed several powerful blows, nearly knocking Fury out.
The British boxer was left severely dazed and was saved by the bell, leading many to believe that the fight should have been halted.
The two are set to face off again in December in what is expected to be an exciting night of boxing. Following their initial bout, Fury’s corner, including his father John, faced backlash after footage revealed them telling Fury he was leading and didn’t need to seek a stoppage.
Ultimately, only one judge concurred, with the other two favouring Usyk. This has led to numerous calls for Tyson to remove his father from his team ahead of the rematch.
Tyson, however, has declared he will not alter his approach for the upcoming rematch. In a candid chat with Paul Dempsey before the launch of the new boxing game ‘Undisputed,’ he was quizzed on the tactical planning involved in his second face-off with Usyk.
“Not much time,” he replied. “I know what I’ve got to do, nothing drastic. People can say ‘I want to change trainers or I’ll blame it on me conditioning coach or I’ll blame it on the cook or I’ll blame it on the mouse next door.’ Same team, same everything. I know what I’ve got to do.
“I thought I won the fight last time. I give him, me boxing all my life and watching boxing me whole career, I give him rounds eight, nine and ten, and round nine was a 10-8. So that’s what I give him out of the fight, but obviously the judges saw it a bit different, couple of them did. One of them had me winning. That’s what it was. It was as close as it can be.”
Reflecting on the aftermath of their May encounter, Peter Fury, who guided his nephew to his inaugural world title triumph against Wladimir Klitschko in 2015, critiqued the excess of guidance during the fight. “There should only be one man in the corner, there shouldn’t be three or four,” he said. “Some are too emotional in the corner and some are giving the wrong advice.
“I think the only one that spoke a little bit of sense in the last dying stretch of it was Sugar Hill, who said put it on him. When you go into fights, it doesn’t matter who it is, it could be a family member, but you’ve got to give precise clear information, and the thing I always say to the fighter is: ‘Are you listening, do you understand what I’ve just told you to do?
“There were too many people, but maybe Tyson wants that I don’t know, it’s been years since dealings with me. I don’t know what the situation is but clearly for me the game plan was wrong and only one should be speaking. How can you listen to all that? It’s going a bit panicky and it’s all over the place.
“I’ve always said I can’t be bought in boxing. If someone is talking in the corner, I’d say shut your f***ing mouth now or get out the back. It’s happened before. I’m not having anything go on in that corner. You’re the bucket man, you wash the gumshield out, you wipe his head down, do not speak. That’s their instruction, and if they speak, when they get back to the dressing room, sacked on the spot. You’ve got to have a professional corner.”
With the rematch just around the corner, Tyson Fury has admitted he’s not started his training camp yet. Speaking about his preparation, he said: “I haven’t started training yet. I won’t go into camp for a good while. I think I’ve got 13 weeks today until my fight. So, I’ll probably start training in about six weeks for it. I do about six/seven weeks training for these fights usually and I’ll be ready to rock and roll on the night.”
