Tyson Fury has “learned his lesson” with Oleksandr Usyk in the same way he did with Deontay Wilder, according to his trainer SugarHill Steward.
Fury and Usyk fight for the second time on Saturday evening at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where they will contest the WBA, WBO and WBC heavyweight titles.
For the 36-year-old Fury the occasion is unique – he will walk to the ring as a fighter who, in their first fight in May for the undisputed title, was beaten for the first time.
There have been other occasions when he has been tested – in 2018 against Wilder he was almost stopped in the final round – and when he has emerged from them as an improved fighter, and it is that same streak that Steward is relying on ahead of a fight that could yet come to define Fury’s fine career.
Where in 2018 Fury had been content to attempt to outbox Wilder – he often succeeded; without that knockdown in the final round he would have won instead of drawn – for their rematch in 2020, and his first fight since recruiting Steward, he was a heavier and more destructive fighter, and one who stopped Wilder by so impressively forcing him on to the back foot.
During May’s competitive contest, Fury, similarly, sought to outbox the 37-year-old Usyk, and for large periods had success. When he then got caught and almost stopped in the ninth round, what was unfolding transformed to the extent that Usyk earned a split decision – and Steward believes that his fighter is ready to adapt and evolve once again.
Earlier in fight week the American spoke of how Fury’s father John will not this time join he and Andy Lee in Fury’s corner on Saturday evening. On Friday Fury weighed in – fully clothed – a career-heaviest 20st 1lb, or 281lbs, and therefore 55lbs heavier than Usyk, who at 16st 1lb was five pounds lighter than he was in May.
If Usyk will prove considerably harder to control than was Wilder in 2020, the indications are that Fury will attempt to force a significantly different nature of fight. By even Steward’s admission it is potentially that “simple” – and to the extent that he has predicted, like against Wilder, that a knockout victory will follow.
“He done it before, with things not going his way and learning his lesson,” the trainer told BoxingScene. "Deontay Wilder, the first fight he got knocked down twice, and the second fight he didn’t get knocked down any. He learned his lesson — he’s always been a student wanting to be better for himself, to remain competitive and to get a knockout. He wants to get knockouts. He don’t want it in the hands of the judges.
“It’s the same as when he caught Deontay Wilder the first time and got caught in the 12th round with a big shot, which changed the fight. You take that and you say, ‘You know, we fight again, and we don’t make that same mistake’.
“I’m pretty simple, as you probably know, but the biggest thing is don’t get caught with a big left hand in the ninth round. We thrive off of knockouts and catching somebody with a big shot, and he got caught with a big shot in the ninth round and paid for it. Don’t get caught.
“You can always pick something apart and look at the whole fight and say, ‘I wish he didn’t get hit with that jab in round one, or round two for this punch or that punch’. It gets to be too tedious or too drawn out for myself. The biggest factor in the decision of that fight [against Usyk], I believe, was getting caught in the ninth round, and going down.
“Tyson Fury is focused. He wants to be bothered with nothing else but this fight and his opponent, Oleksandr Usyk. He’s been that way all the way through training camp. I guess some people out there can see he’s focused; I can see he’s focused. Some people maybe don’t see he’s focused. He’s focused; he’s sharp; he’s focused, and he wants to go out there and do his job thoroughly.
“I see Tyson Fury winning this fight – Oleksandr Usyk, the rematch – with a knockout.”
Fury and Ukraine’s Usyk had stared at each other for several minutes on Thursday. On Friday their stare down lasted seven seconds, and asked about the first of those, about if John Fury’s expected absence from the corner will make his job easier, and about suggestions that Tyson Fury is showing signs of ageing, Steward responded: “I was nowhere near [the stare down]. I could look at pictures all day, but I’m used to doing a stare down while I’m right there. I don’t know what to make of some pictures and stuff like that.
“I hear [Fury] talking about it, but it ain’t nothing worth me repeating, because I didn’t see it myself. In court it would be hearsay, it wouldn’t be the truth — it’s me saying what someone else said. I don’t want to say what someone else has said.
“If [John Fury’s] not in the corner on fight night then that’s just about it. I don’t know what anyone else could want from that. I don’t think so myself [that that makes my job easier], he’s just not in the corner. I’ve been in the corner with Tyson before. That’s not what made the fight [as it was] – Tyson got caught in the ninth round and what happened is what happened. That had nothing to do with me; nothing to do with John; it had nothing to do with anything anybody else could imagine or think of. The truth is the truth. Other than that, you’re making excuses for what happened in the boxing ring.
“I can agree with [suggestions Fury’s ageing], and the reason is because everyone’s ageing. He wouldn’t be an exception to that rule, as far as him ageing, unless I’m getting the meaning of it wrong. But, yeah, he’s ageing. Usyk’s ageing too — I don’t believe that Usyk’s in some sort of time bubble where he doesn’t age. They’re both human beings, and both of them are entering this fight with the same amount of days in between. So I think it’s pretty fair.”