Tyson Fury has been reaching out to fighters in an attempt to organise sparring that may help his efforts in an undisputed heavyweight championship fight against Oleksandr Usyk.
Although the fight hasn’t been made official yet, and fans have been led in various directions from the updates, the most recent feeling – especially from Fury and his promoter, Frank Warren – is that the contest will go ahead on April 29 at Wembley Stadium.
Andy Lee – who is a close friend of Fury’s and has been an integral part of past training camps – told Pro Boxing Fans that he had organised a sparring partner, something he believes means the fight will be delivered on time.
“I think it’s a tricky fight, but me and Tyson spoke about it only last week. I arranged some sparring for him – they called me about a guy I know. So got some sparring, the guy’s going over tonight. That’ll show you that the fight’s very close to be finalised I think.”
A former undisputed cruiserweight champion and perhaps one of the most technically talented boxers alive, Usyk is notoriously hard to replicate in the gym.
Still, Lee believes that, despite the Ukrainian’s southpaw skills, Fury has the beating of him.
“Tyson, he just makes so much sense, you know. What can he [Usyk] do that Tyson can’t do? 6 foot 8, 82 inch reach, power and he can wrestle him, smother him or box him. So Tyson can win it any way.
[Usyk] is a tricky little man – he has a good feint jab. Well a little man compared to Tyson – he’d smash me! But Tyson can fight southpaw too. It wouldn’t surprise me if Tyson fought the whole fight southpaw.”
Fury’s size has been highlighted in many predictions, with plenty of pundits believing ‘The Gypsy King’ is a step too far for the smaller man in his heavyweight campaign.
Fans will be eager to see how it plays out for themselves, and patiently await an announcement.