Ricky Hatton: "Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk has to be good for our sport"
Ricky Hatton spoke in length to Mighty Tips about Tyson Fury's upcoming clash against Oleksandr Usyk, providing his prediction for the undisputed heavyweight battle, as well giving as his expert opinion other heavyweight battles that could come soon.
Here's what the former world champion had to say.
Fury vs Usyk has been made – how big is this for boxing?
RH: We’ve been waiting for so long for AJ-Tyson, Tyson-Usyk and for Crawford-Spence. Now we’ve had Crawford vs Spence and now Fury vs Usyk has been made and there’s a trade fight in Wood and Warrington. This is good for boxing – don’t point the fingers at YouTube boxing, boxing has got to pull its finger out.
To see that fight (might) be made in January, obviously Tyson can’t take his eye off the ball in Saudi Arabia. This is positive for the sport – I don’t see why both arts can’t exist. Boxing will always have their fans, MMA will always have their fans but we are in the entertainment business. I don’t mind these fights happening as long as the real boxing fights are taking place – that will help boxing.
Thankfully the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world – the first one since 1999 – has to be good for our sport, I didn’t think it was going to happen.
Is Fury the favourite for the fight?
RH: I think he is but it’s not beyond the realms of impossibility (Usyk wins). When you think Tyson has the height, the reach, he can box southpaw, orthodox, stand there, sit in there and have fight, he can sit and sway and move and make you miss off the backfoot. He can lean, counterpunch, he does everything Usyk does and he’s got the strength and weight advantage. I can’t see anything other than a Tyson win. But it’s not a foregone conclusion.
Fury has fought your Dillian Whytes, your Deontay Wilders and with no disrespect intended, the big lump heavyweights who can stand there and have it. He is the smaller man but what Tyson needs to do to adapt from his fights with Whyte, Wilder and his fight in Saudi Arabia, all he has fought is big lumps and all of sudden he’s got a smaller man who might be a little bit nippy in and out and probably causes another problem that Tyson might not have been used to for four or five years. I think Tyson wins but the size difference against the smaller man causes problems he might not have had in the last four or five years.
Usyk has a good chin but I don’t think he’s been hit by someone of the size of Tyson. The main problem Tyson is used to fighting 20 stone heavyweights. It’ll be difficult for Tyson but he’ll prepare properly in the gym, and I think he will have his game plan sorted and win the fight. But if it did go the other way I wouldn’t go ‘wow that is a shock’ but you would have to be brave man to go against Tyson because of all the advantages he has.
If Fury wins, what does it do for his legacy?
RH: It was fantastic when he beat Klitschko and his three Wilder fights. That trilogy was epic. Them three fights will do his legacy no harm. Everyone was thinking Tyson-Usyk (needing to happen) so I think it would have harmed his legacy if he hadn’t have fought him. Usyk came up from cruiserweight division, became undisputed champion. It was like Mayweather-Pacquiao with everyone saying ‘who is the best’? Thankfully it is on and if he beats the other undisputed champion in Oleksandr Usyk then he has to go up there as one of the greats. This fight puts that to bed, I think he is one of the greats but people are always going to say you haven’t fought AJ, you haven’t fought Usyk but now he’s fighting Usyk.
Did you think the fight was ever going to get made?
RH: I had a feeling it might happen because you put your Instagram on and Tyson saying ‘he’s going to knock him out’ and then Frank will be saying then Tyson will be saying something. Don’t mind me to say, the rubbish that was coming out but when it went quiet I thought this is a good sign. They must be deep into negotiations – the fact they’ve gone quiet I thought it was going to be announced. So when it was announced I said ‘I knew it was going to happen’. I was absolutely made up because all Tyson has wanted to do since day one, when he went through his bad stages, he wanted to be the best in the world. Then when became a world champion, he wanted to be an all-time great and he did that to his legacy with the Wilder fights and one fight he was missing out on to put the finishing touches on this legacy was the Usyk fight and I couldn’t be more happier than him.
Does AJ need to fight Wilder next?
RH: I think so. He’s had a couple of warm up fights since Usyk now is the time for him to get in and I love AJ to bits, there’s nothing more better than to see an all-British heavyweight title fight between Joshua and Fury. Tyson gets a lot of stick for giving out a lot of talk and he does give a lot of talk out but at the end of the day he’s the one saying that he wanted the fight and he’s made the Usyk fight. He always said – not point any fingers – but Tyson said ‘I want the AJ fight but AJ don’t want it’, and now when you see the Wilder fight falling through, I’m not saying Tyson was right and AJ was wrong but you got to say Tyson might have been right in the first place with what he’s saying because he’s signed up for the biggest fight.
We’d pay all day long to watch AJ v Wilder so I’m a little bit devastated that it seems to have stalled again.
AJ v Wilder prediction?
RH: it’s the heavyweight division so whoever lands. You’d have to turn around and say who lands first. Technically Wilder is hopeless you wouldn’t teach a novice kid to throw a right hand like he throws it, it’s all over the show. But when it goes straight down the pipe, it’s murderous, horrendous, he’s one of the biggest punchers in heavyweight history. The only reason he couldn’t keep Tyson down was because Tyson could see his backhand coming and technically he’s all over the shop and with Tyson’s upper body movement, his ability to switch and pull, that’s why when he did get in he wasn’t able to get the next one in.
But with AJ, he’s more in front of you and maybe you’d have to say Wilder has a better chance of getting it in against AJ than Fury but when you see how bad technically Wilder is and how good technically AJ is, there’s every chance AJ can get it in first.
Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk fight predictions
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