Oleksandr Usyk beat Tyson Fury in May (Image: PA)
has confessed he should have accepted a £10million fine and delayed his first fight with .
The Gypsy King postponed the bout from February to May due to a cut sustained in sparring, risking a hefty eight-figure fine if he further delayed the highly-anticipated clash.
Ultimately, Fury lost on points to Usyk, missing out on becoming the undisputed heavyweight world champion. Reflecting on this, : “This time it’s been a lot easier,” and “I’ve done lots of sparring and I’ve been able to train properly, whereas before it’s no secret that I didn’t do a lot of sparring, hence I had a massive bounty on my cut eye. ” He added: “Thinking sensible, maybe I would have pushed it back a little bit and cost myself £10m, but it doesn’t really matter because we’re here now and I’m going to do the job on Saturday night.”
In preparation for Saturday’s rematch, Fury also revealed he will reduce the showboating. “I don’t believe the showboating cost me the fight but I need to be more focused this time and not do as much,” he said. He also mentioned a commentator’s observation: “One of the commentators picked up on it and said, ‘has anybody ever seen Tyson Fury clown this much, even against lower level opposition? ‘. That’s how easy it was for me in there and you can get complacent because of that.”
Fury remains confident that he won the first thrilling fight, which was filled with momentum shifts. He believes he will use the same tactics in the rematch. In the sixth round of their previous bout, Fury seemed on the verge of defeating Usyk, but the Ukrainian demonstrated his resilience by turning the match around. This began with a powerful blow to Fury’s nose in the eighth round and continued with him overpowering Fury in the ninth.
“I’m just going to use my boxing, like I did last time. I’m not going to do anything drastic, like a total change of gameplan because it’s not needed,” Fury stated. “If it was five, six or seven rounds the opposite way and it was a landslide, then fine. Then I’d have to change something drastically.
“But because it was a very close fight, I don’t really need to change much. I just need to be a little bit more focused and that’s it really. “Why would I change something when I had control of the fight for maybe 80 per cent of it? I’m landing on him at will, head and body, lead right uppercuts, left hooks, right hooks to the body. Doubles at times. I don’t feel I need to change anything. I don’t think Usyk will change either because his key to victory has to be coming forward. He ain’t going to outbox me on the back foot. It’s not possible. So he has to come forward and make a fight of it.”