Trainer Don Charles is convinced that WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury will defeat IBF/WBA/WBO champ Oleksandr Usyk if he brings his A-game and has trained for their May 18th fight. Fans aren’t buying it, and neither am I.
The Fury We See Now: A Shadow of a Shadow
Father time has caught up to the 35-year-old Fury, who is a ship full of holes, and he can’t patch them up fast enough to prevent his sinking against the sprightly, more athletic Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs) on May 18th in their undisputed championship fight at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Fury’s movement now has the grace of a drunk elephant, and it’s clear that he’s not the young fighter he once was eons ago. If Fury is counting on grabbing Usyk and holding on, hoping he gets tired, it’s going to be a fail. The Gypsy King will have to have a better strategy than that to defeat Usyk.
He’s no longer the young fighter that squeaked by Wladimir Klitschko in 2015. Fury has gotten old, and his mobility is gone. Father time has morphed Fury into a wrestler, and the reason he failed spectacularly against Francis Ngannou is that that grappling approach was not on the level of the former UFC champion.
Fury can’t count on the judges saving him against Usyk like they did against Ngannou because it can’t happen twice without creating a huge backlash.
“I’ve always said from day one that if Tyson Fury ever fought Usyk there’s only one winner I see, but it is a boxing match,” said trainer Don Charles to Pro Boxing Fans about his belief that Tyson Fury will defeat Oleksandr Usyk on May 18th.
Fury’s long-overdue fall from grace?
“Tyson has to bring his A-game on the night, and Tyson has to be in the best shape of his life because it’s in front of a very tricky opponent. Usyk’s rhythm is hard to contain, but I still say if Tyson brings his A-game, there is only going to be one winner in that fight and that’s Tyson Fury.
It may not matter if Fury brings his A-game because we’ve seen that all he does nowadays is grab, hold, and lean. He clearly lost his last fight against novice Francis Ngannoyu but was saved by the judging crew in Saudi Arabia.
He can’t bank on the judges bailing him out again without the fans seeing something rotten in Denmark.
“Provided Tyson has trained for this fight and brings his A-game, his A-game outweighs Usyk’s A-game. That’s how I see it.”
