Tyson Fury Vows To Knock Out Oleksandr Usyk In The Rematch
Tyson Fury says he is leaving nothing to chance in his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk and has vowed to knock out the unified heavyweight world champion.
Fury (34-1-1 24 KO) suffered the first defeat of his professional career on May 18 when he ended up on the wrong side of a split decision to Usyk (22-0-0 14 KO) in their undisputed world title fight. In addition to taking his first loss, Fury also surrendered his WBC belt and lineal champion status.
The rematch to the all-time classic first fight was soon booked and will be staged on December 21 in the same Kingdom Arena venue in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Fury stated immediately after the fight that he felt he did enough to secure the victory, despite a dicey ninth round that saw the ‘Gypsy King’ get pummeled to all four corners of the ring but somehow remain on his feet. It’s a stance that he has maintained in the months since, but rather than leaving the rematch in the hands of the judges, Fury is determined to end the bout early.
“I didn’t think he beat me last time, and I’m damn sure not going to let him beat me this time,” Fury told IFL. “I’ve got to knock Usyk out, and I’ll be training for a good knockout. I’ll get it like I did [in the second fight versus Deontay Wilder in 2020]. And that’s what I will do. I said I was going to knock [Wilder] out, and I did.
“I’m going to knock this c*** out this time, and I will. Believe it first. See it first in your mind and execute it out there. I can’t take anything away from the ugly b*****d Usyk. I can’t say that I didn’t prepare or do any training. I did what I had to do. He’s got the decision over me, and we got to run it back.
“It makes sense to do the rematch and get my victory back. I’ve gotten past the point of really caring. It probably took that decision to wake me up and give me the type of aggression back where I want to smash someone in.”
While the first fight was for the undisputed title, the rematch will be for the WBC, WBO, and WBA titles after the IBF stripped Usyk and elevated interim champion Daniel Dubois.
Dubois made the most of what Usyk described as a “gift”, using the IBF belt as leverage to secure a bout with Anthony Joshua and duly crushing the former world champion in five rounds.
There had been a huge amount of fans and figures within boxing who had hoped a Joshua victory could have led to a long-awaited showdown with Fury, although the loss and the humbling manner of the defeat mean the fight feels further away than ever.
None of that is of any concern to Fury, who is focused only on Usyk and correcting the one blemish on his record.
“I have somebody [in Usyk] who has a win over me, who broke me and took my virginity, and stole it back to wherever he lives,” he said. “That’s what I am concerned about. I’m not concerned about [Joshua] and what he is doing. I’ve got a man holding my balls, let’s just say, for the moment.”
