Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk will meet to crown the first undisputed heavyweight champion since the days of Lennox Lewis – and Carl Froch has U-turned on his prediction.
Froch previously predicted Fury would physically ‘dominate’ the smaller Usyk in a close contest. That was before the Brit put in a below-par performance against MMA star Francis Ngannou in a fight he was supposed to win handily.
Speaking on Froch on Fighting after the Ngannou performance, ‘The Cobra’ said he was still backing Fury to win the four belts.
“I’ve always said that I think Fury’s too big for Oleksandr Usyk. He’s come up from cruiserweight, a fantastic fighter, massive talent, but I just think that the weight difference … where [Fury] wasn’t able to lean on Ngannou and negate his work and tire him out, he will be able to do that with Usyk … I don’t think Usyk will be able to cope with that … I think Tyson Fury beats Usyk in a really really close fight.”
Now, in an end-of-year round-up on TalkSPORT, Froch makes Usyk the favourite.
“2024’s gonna be a fantastic year. Hopefully with a close humdinger with Tyson Fury and Usyk. I’m picking Usyk for that one, just because of where Tyson Fury is mentally.
Hopefully Tyson Fury can have a good camp and rekindle some of his old greatness in terms of when he fought Deontay Wilder three times. He looked good, he looked different every time. But I don’t know it that’s gone now. He struggles to get the weight off him. He seems under-motivated. When he fought Ngannou he looked confused. Has he got old overnight?”
“Hopefully he turns up and gets the job done, because I want those titles to return to Britain, but at the minute I think Usyk wins that fight.”
Fans don’t have to wait long to find out. The fight is signed and sealed for February 17 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and both men are deep in training camp.