Tony Bellew reveals why he is picking his old opponent Oleksandr Usyk to defeat Tyson Fury
Former WBC World cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew spoke with Spinbet about how he has no doubt of Oleksandr Usyk beating Tyson Fury ahead of their undisputed showdown on Saturday, May 18.“The Bomber” began by praising the man he fully expects to lose on Saturday night in Saudi, “I tip my hat off to Tyson Fury, he looks in great shape, but it still doesn’t make me change my mind as I still think he loses to Oleksandr Usyk.
“I think he loses on points and as long as Usyk doesn’t get shafted (by the scorecards), he wins comfortably.”
The 41-year-old from Liverpool explained why he’s backing his former foe, “On the technical side of things, Tyson Fury has always struggled with smaller movers and is horrendous when it comes to counterpunchers. If you go on the backfoot against Fury, he is lost.
“A complete boxing novice in Francis Ngannou when on the backfoot against Fury and caused him all kinds of problems. And I mean a raw, complete novice in Francis Ngannou. He gave him fits which is crazy to think a man with a boxing record of 0-0 went in there and pushed the heavyweight champion of the world to the absolute limit. Some people even think he won. You can’t really dispute that.
“A lot of people think Francis Ngannou is at 1-1 and his first fight he defeated the lineal heavyweight champion of the world. Thankfully, he didn’t get it but to a lot of people think he won and Ngannou definitely had the morale victory that night if anything.
“But against Anthony Joshua, he took somebody on who didn’t take him lightly or think it would be a walk in the park and got dealt with accordingly.”
Back to the main event, which will crown the first undisputed heavyweight champion of this millennium, Bellew continued, “As for Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk, this is a completely different ball game. Both guys know what is on the table, both guys are fully prepared for each other and have a lot of footage to study each other.
“I don’t think Tyson Fury is keen on the footage side of things or studying fighters, but I think Usyk will. He will pay attention to every single detail possible and will leave no stone unturned.
“The hardest thing for Usyk is preparing for somebody like Fury because he is a unicorn – nobody has ever been seen like him before. Six-foot-eight, 20 stone, moves like a light heavyweight, has really good footwork, doesn’t take the greatest shot but then against Usyk isn’t the biggest of punchers… well that’s coming from someone who nearly got his head took off by him but I was so tired my Nan could have took my head off at that stage but he was the one who made my that tired, ultimately.”
“Knowing Usyk though, they would have tapped into everything and will know what they are getting into.
“It will be fascinating but I think it won’t be pretty to watch but Oleksandr Usyk will grind out the victory. I hope he doesn’t get shafted because if he does get the decision, I believe it is the greatest run of any fighter I have seen.
“Every champion, he has went into his backyard and unified divisions. He did it throughout the cruiserweight division and unified. He came to the heavyweight champion’s backyard (Anthony Joshua in London) and beat him on his own turf.
“He’s going to beat Tyson Fury in Saudi Arabia against all of the odds, talk about an underdog story. Don’t get me wrong, he’s not so much of an underdog because I know how good he is having been in the ring with him and the whole cruiserweight division did, but nobody anticipated him to do what he has done at heavyweight, and me included.
“But when he did that to Anthony Joshua, I just thought wow. The only thing that will beat him is size because someone is simply bigger and stronger than him but Tyson Fury is not a better boxer than Oleksandr Usyk, but he might just be too big and too strong. We will soon find out.”
Despite his firm belief in Usyk, Bellew expects Tyson Fury to be at his absolute best on May 18, “I still think Tyson Fury overlooked Francis Ngannou and let’s be honest, it was a bit of a circus, so he got caught up with all of that, to be totally honest. He is in great shape now, but yes; he has been on the floor before against Ngannou but also others and yes we have seen him struggle with smaller fighters but he knows what he is getting into with this one against Oleksandr Usyk.
“Tyson Fury knows that this is for all of the marbles, and this will be the first undisputed champion since Lennox Lewis in 1999 when he beat Evander Holyfield so he knows what this is for and knows the magnitude of the event so he will prepare accordingly and will be ready on May 18. He’ll be ready to take his place rightfully amongst the greats of the sport if he wins.
“Tyson Fury is not a better boxer than Oleksandr Usyk and the only thing that can beat Usyk is someone who is bigger than him – that’s literally it. I hope the scorecards don’t get in the way of Usyk winning.”