David Price thinks there is one issue around the upcoming undisputed fight between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury that has taken the shine away from it.
The world awaits to see if this first undisputed fight in 25 years will finally play out on the newly arranged date of May 18. It should have been happening this weekend, February 17, but Fury suffered a bad cut late in camp.
The cut required 11 stitches and meant the original date had to be put back and triggered Anthony Joshua to come out and say he would be ready to step in as a replacement opponent if required.
Since then there has been lots of heated exchanges between the two teams with accusations flying that Fury has been poor in camp and required more time to get ready. It led to Fury’s brother Shane having to address whether in fact there was a mole in the camp.
Price was a fringe-level contender himself throughout his career and so is well-experienced in these matters. He spoke to IFL TV about the delay.
“It’s happened to me before where I got injured in training and had to postpone fights. It’s disappointing. I think one of the worst things that happened for this fight was the Francis Ngannou fight. It kind of took the shine off this fight cause I just feel it was that disappointing from Fury’s perspective.
“Sometimes a postponement can work ’cause it can build the anticipation more and get people talking more and it might work out better for the event that it’s got postponed rather than coming straight off the back of a lacklustre display from the heavyweight champ against a non-boxer.”
Fury will be hoping the extra time in camp does indeed allow him to get back to his best.