As pointless as any other “Grand Arrivals”, the only thing that made tonight’s spectacle in Saudi Arabia different from the rest was the fact that Saturday night’s fighters approached the stage having first exited an aircraft. (Yes, only in Saudi Arabia.)
That aside, it was more of the same. The fighters walked a red carpet, they posed for photographs, and they were asked two or three questions they could answer without having to think; something imperative during fight week.
The headliners, Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk, had little to say, as expected. They have been linked together now for seven months – if not longer – and anything that has not yet been expressed by one or the other will no doubt be expressed on Saturday in their rematch. We have, in other words, heard it all by now.
“It’s pretty much the same,” said Fury, in agreement. “Biggest event of my life – one biggest event to the next biggest event. I’m looking forward to putting on a show, as always.”
Asked if he was carrying most of his weight in his beard, he said, “It’s giving me strength like Samson,” before going on to make his prediction. “I’m going to knock him out,” he said. “I’m going to give Turki (Alalshikh, the financier of the event) what I promised him in May: a cooked rabbit in his kitchen.”
Usyk, meanwhile, had even less to say when he followed Fury. Via translator, he simply said, “I am ready; I am ready to fight.
“It’s only talk (from Fury). Listen, we will see. It’s God’s will. It will be a great fight. I feel good. I feel I will win.”