Tyson Fury gets his chance at redemption later this year when he rematches Oleksandr Usyk.
‘The Gypsy King’ had long taunted the Olympic Gold Medalist and four-belt cruiserweight champion about being too small to compete in the banner division, but that’s not how the fight transpired.
Instead, it was a close contest separated largely by the eighth and ninth rounds in which Usyk managed to hurt Fury on his way to a points win and undisputed status. It was the Brit’s first ever professional loss.
Speaking about that contest in an interview with IFL TV, former undisputed champion Lennox Lewis discussed the motivations both men have for the rematch, set for December 21 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
“Yeah, I mean I Iook at Tyson Fury, he’s an up and down guy, he goes up and he does down. I think he will look back at the fight and realise there is a couple things he should do, and will do. Usyk is a great fighter, he’s got a great mentality behind him, his country’s at war, so when they fight he will still think he’s at war, it’s going to be a serious fight and I can’t wait to see it.”
When pushed for a prediction, Lewis suggested that Fury knew what to do and would do it.
“Fury knows what he needs to do. He’s been at the bottom, he’s been at the top, right now he’s at the bottom and he knows what he needs to do to get to the top. It’s going to be a great fight, he wants to be undisputed as well. When he looks at the fight he knows there is a couple things he should have done and he’s going to go in there and do them.”
Whoever comes out on top may well get the chance at another undisputed contest against the winner of the IBF title fight between Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois this weekend.
