Tyson Fury’s sportsmanship lasted all of three days after his ‘final’ message to Oleksandr Usyk ahead of their undisputed heavyweight clash.
Despite the pair not having officially announced the four-belt scrap, both are in training camp and Fury’s promoter is bullish about April 29 at Wembley Stadium will go ahead as promised.
The negotiations were capped off by a public back and forth between the fighters, arguing over purse splits and rematch clauses, and leading fans to believe that everything was close to collapse.
That was until ‘The Gypsy King’ announced a social media blackout, alerting fans that his training camp was starting for ‘the biggest fight in heavyweight history.’ He signed off by wishing his opponent the best of luck.
Less than a week later, Fury is back on his belligerence, filming a video from camp. He tagged Usyk in the post and had the entire gym recite ‘Usyk is a pussy!’
Alongside him in the video is featherweight Isaac Lowe, as well as, more notably, trainer SugarHill Steward.
Steward touched down in the UK this week to corner Lawrence Okolie – his latest recruit – on March 25 in his WBO Cruiserweight title defence against David Light.
Fury linking up with his coach comes amidst claims that he wouldn’t have enough time to prepare for the undisputed fight, but that seems to have been remedied quickly.
Usyk has been busy posting clips from the gym, too, and even the most pessimistic of fans have to admit that things are looking good for the legacy-defining fight.
The winner will be crowned the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis, and the first ever from the four-belt era.