Cunningham Says Usyk Destroys Fury – ‘Fury Will Lose Or Get Disqualified’
Steve Cunningham expects Oleksandr Usyk to beat Tyson Fury.
The two boxers face off on May 18 for the right to become the Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World. Boxing fans have not seen once since Lennox Lewis beat Evander Holyfield in 1999. The narrative coming into the fight is that the bout could go either way. Fury did not look his best against Francis Ngannou, getting dropped in the third round on his way to securing a split-decision win.
Daniel Dubois also dropped Usyk in his last fight with a body shot in the fifth round. But rather than getting counted out, the referee deemed it a low blow. The Ukrainian then recovered before stopping Dubois in the ninth round. Cunningham is someone who has been in the ring with Fury. Based on his observation, he has backed Usyk to come out on top.
Cunningham Reacts
“I believe Ngannou only looked as good as he did fighting Fury because Fury didn’t take fighting an MMA guy seriously. Ngannou does have unbelievable power, though. He landed a clean shot on Fury, who wasn’t in shape at all. I was surprised at that but not at the fact that Fury got up and outpointed him.
“I think Usyk wins by decision against Fury, though. Either that or Fury gets disqualified. Fury’s going to have to lean and lay all over Usyk to tire him down – as he does usually. “But I think the referee will be alerted to this before the fight [by team Usyk], and Fury will lose points,” Cunningham said
There are concerns that Fury’s latest injury, which prevented the fight from happening on February 17, will hinder him. The Gypsy King suffered a big cut over his right eye in sparring, rescheduling the fight for May 18. Cuts of that nature take a prolonged period of time to heal.
Fury’s father, John Fury, was critical of his son’s training, stating that the focus should have been on body sparring. There is a feeling that Usyk may target that eye to try and gain an advantage. Usyk’s former coach, James Bashir Ali, was worried over the cut, saying it would need more time to heal.
Fury’s Issue
“Tyson has a reputation for being a rowdy guy. He spars oft times without any head gear on and a fight of that magnitude you can’t take those kinds of chances. I don’t know whether he had head gear off or not but the place where the cut is it seems so unlikely. Disregard for his profession, disregard for the fans… more than likely it came from him being reckless.
“May, that’s cutting it short, that is hurrying it up. I can see that cut re-opening if they go in May. I would push the fight back to June or July to be sure. [And] I personally as a boxing trainer would push it back. The longer that he takes time for it to heal, the better the cut is going to be but I don’t know about May,” Bashir said
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