Carl Froch has been offering his advice to Oleksandr Usyk ahead of the Ukrainian’s undisputed world heavyweight showdown with Brit Tyson Fury in Saudi Arabia.
The fight represents the first undisputed clash in the marquee division for almost a quarter of a century and is the biggest match-up that can be made in the sport right now.
For Fury, it comes after stoppage wins over Dillian Whyte and Derek Chisora and could be just a matter of weeks after his bout with Francis Ngannou takes place across 10 rounds in Riyadh on October 28.
Usyk, meanwhile, has twice gone 12 rounds with Anthony Joshua to win and then defend his WBA, WBO and IBF world titles on points, and then knocked out Daniel Dubois in a second defense in August.
Speaking to bestgamblingsites.com, former super middleweight world champion Froch has given his thoughts on how he thinks Usyk can best prepare for the contest – suggesting old Fury for, Wladimir Klitschko would be the perfect sparring partner.
“To prepare for Fury, Usyk needs someone 6 ‘6″ minimum. Wladimir Klitschko would have been a good sparring partner for Usyk, someone world-class who can give you hard sparring and with that height and reach, but there’s nobody out there as good as Fury and there’s nobody really like Fury with his size and weight, so you can’t replicate Fury.”
Despite respecting Usyk’s, skills, Froch goes on to say he thinks size will be a determining factor.
“I think Fury nullifies his work and ties him up. I’m not so sure if he gets the stoppage. I just think that the size of Fury will be a problem. I don’t think Usyk can make that range up against the 6 ‘9 Fury.”