Oleksandr Usyk backed to beat "under-motivated" Tyson Fury in undisputed fight

28 December 2023 , 10:46

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Oleksandr Usyk backed to beat "under-motivated" Tyson Fury in undisputed fight

Tyson Fury has been told he will lose to Oleksandr Usyk in their undisputed clash after looking "confused" in his last fight.

Heavyweight champion Fury went tooth and nail against former UFC champion Francis Ngannou when they met in a crossover bout two months ago. The Brit was expected to make easy work of Ngannou to set up an undisputed fight with Usyk for this year, but he was put down by Ngannou and only won by a point in a controversial decision.

British boxing legend Carl Froch has now changed his prediction for Fury's upcoming fight against Usyk in February as he told talkSPORT: "2024 is going to be a fantastic year. Hopefully with a close humdinger with Fury and Usyk. I’m picking Usyk for that one, just because of where Tyson Fury is mentally. Hopefully Fury can have a good camp and rekindle some of his old greatness in terms of when he fought Deontay Wilder three times.

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"He looked good, he looked different every time. I don’t know, that’s gone now. He struggles to get the weight off him. He seems under-motivated. When he fought Ngannou he looked confused. Has he got old overnight? Hopefully he turns up and gets the job done, because I want those titles to return to Britain, but at the minute I think Usyk wins that fight."

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Froch's comments come as a surprise as he previously backed Fury to win as he insisted the Brit would be too big for Usyk, who moved up to heavyweight from cruiserweight several years ago. Froch was unsurprised that Fury wasn't able to use his weight to tire Ngannou out, but thinks he will be able to do so against Usyk.

“I’ve always said that I think Fury’s too big for Oleksandr Usyk," Froch previously said. "He’s come up from cruiserweight, a fantastic fighter, massive talent, but I just think that the weight difference where Fury wasn’t able to lean on Ngannou and negate his work and tire him out, he will be able to do that with Usyk. I don’t think Usyk will be able to cope with that. I think Tyson Fury beats Usyk in a really, really close fight.”

Fury is planning to spend over eight weeks in the Middle East to prepare for his fight with Usyk as he will jet out to Saudi Arabia on Saturday. 'The Gypsy King' admitted that Ngannou was his toughest opponent of the past decade and the fight served as big wake up call for his undisputed world title fight.

Harry Davies