Tyson Fury beat Francis Ngannou via split-decision to allow him to sign for an undisputed fight against Oleksandr Usyk, but the performance gave more questions than answers.
Expected to deal with the former UFC Heavyweight Champion as and when he pleased, Fury instead struggled to stamp his authority on the ten-rounder, getting dropped in the third round and fighting below-par for the rest.
His father, John Fury, spoke to Boxing Social via FreeBets.com about the performance, and said it was a different Tyson in the ring from the standout performances of his career.
“He knows he’s got great ability, he’s got a long future left in the game. If you’re gonna think you can do as you want and just cruise through life without stress or drama, you’re gonna have a rude awakening. He knows that, but sometimes my mind boggles, cause when he looked like he did against Francis Ngannou – never had a lot of power, his boxing ability was to be questioned, not much movement, he couldn’t get away from shots like he used to – I was seeing two different Tysons.”
“He still got the job done, even though he was in nowhere near [best] condition. I find it alarming, and I’ll say it again, alarming, because he was supposed to have had a twelve week camp. Didn’t look like twelve days to me. But there you are, he can win on 20%, he’s that good.”
That doesn’t bode well for the fight against undefeated Ukrainian Usyk, who has beaten Derek Chisora, Anthony Joshua twice and Daniel Dubois since his arrival at heavyweight.
Fury senior knows his son can pull it off, but believes it’s all in the game-plan.
“All he needs Tyson is to look in the mirror and say right, I’m gonna grind it out. I’m gonna give it everything. I’ll change my job around and go back to what made me great. I’m gonna be moving, dancing, feinting, twisting, turning. Everytime you move I’m gonna hit you. But you need to train and train hard to do them things.”
“You need a style that’s compatible and is gonna work against Usyk. If you’re just gonna keep walking forward hoping to land a big right hand, it ain’t gonna happen.”