Coach: Oleksandr Usyk would need to "cope with Tyson Fury's dirty style" to win
Oleksandr Usyk would need to cope with some "dirty tactics" to beat Tyson Fury, according to his coach.
By Oscar Willis - 6 Jan 2022
Oleksandr Usyk would need to watch out for some of Tyson Fury's "dirty" tactics to earn a victory over the WBC champion, says Usyk's assistant coach Sergey Lapin.
And, despite all signs currently pointing to a rematch between Usyk and former champion Anthony Joshua, Lapin says fans shouldn't rule out a sudden drastic change to see a unification bout between the two heavyweight kings instead.
"In the near future we will find out the date of the Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua rematch. But maybe we'll find out something else interesting," Lapin said, speaking to MyBettingSites. "Why not assume such an option as Fury-Usyk? It would be interesting for boxing fans, a historical event. If you remember a year ago, fans were waiting for a fight for the undisputed world champion in the heavyweight division between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua – but literally, in a moment, everything changed.
"At this stage, I think everything is possible, everything is constantly changing. The battle for undisputed champion in the heavyweight division is a very cool event that has not been held for more than 20 years."
In Lapin's mind, while Fury's last performances have been a showcase of brute strength against the hard-hitting Wilder, a fight with Usyk would instead come down to the two athlete's tactical genius.
"If this fight between my fighter Usyk and Tyson Fury took place, it would really be a confrontation between two guys with high boxing IQ," he said. "It seems to me the fight would be more like a chess game, and victory will be in the hands of the one who will perform his task as productively as possible. To date, there is no exact information about this fight, but recently I noticed that there is a lot of talk about it. Perhaps we will find out something interesting very soon."
And, while Usyk would be undersized against the behemoth Fury, his team believes there still is a route to victory should they be able to avoid the Gypsy King's strengths.
"Usyk is ready for any challenges, especially if he may have the opportunity to combine all the belts in heavyweight, his advantage over other heavyweight boxers is the ability to box, and it's worth a lot," Lapin said. "Boxing is an art, and representatives of different styles arrange cool fights. Fury's style can be very dirty, if Alex Usyk copes with Fury's dirty style, then victory will be his."