Oleksandr Usyk was so close to having his chance to become a two-weight undisputed champion, but a cut to Tyson Fury late in the day has meant that the Ukrainian will now have to wait and we recently found out how he reacted to the news.
The fight was due to take place on February 17 but has now been rescheduled for May 18 after heavyweight southpaw Agron Smakici opened up a bad gash above Fury’s right eye.
It is not the first time Fury has had to delay a big fight – he did so ahead of a proposed rematch with Wladimir Klitschko that ultimately never happened, and now people are hoping he doesn’t repeat that trick with Usyk.
As always, unified WBO, WBA and IBF champion Usyk seemed relatively unmoved by the news and told Sky Sports that he ‘loved’ Fury more.
“Why? Because it’s the man who has my fourth belt. It’s the man who helped me become famous a lot. Because we, all people, must love friends, [people who are] not friends, acquaintances, all people. It’s great when you are polite, not dirty.”
He added that he wasn’t annoyed in the slightest, unlike Fury who responded to comments from Usyk’s manager by threatening to knock his teeth out.
“I didn’t even have any irritation inside. No frustration. I just looked back at all the work I’ve done – getting up early, jogging, swimming, sparring, the amount of all it, and I thought to myself: ‘Wow, that’s some good work I did.
“Then I thought of how much more training I will do and how much good work I will do. So when, with God’s help, I will finish all this work, I’ll be able to box three Tyson Furys. We can do it simultaneously or one by one on Saturday, Sunday, and then Monday.”
He didn’t want to speculate on the cut and said he takes it on face value.
“In general, I don’t want to judge Tyson Fury, I’m just trying to say that it happens sometimes – what people plan, sometimes, doesn’t correlate with our Lord’s plans.”
It seems that Usyk will have even more motivation than ever to become the four-belt king come May 18.