Usyk would like to drag Tyson Fury out of retirement – Sporting Life
Oleksandr Usyk has said he dreams of fighting Tyson Fury and has reiterated that if he can’t fight the WBC heavyweight champion, he may not fight again.
Usyk clinched a split decision win over Anthony Joshua in Jeddah to retain his WBA, WBO and IBF titles as well as add the ring belt, and inevitably thoughts quickly turned to Fury and a fight for the undisputed title.
While Fury quickly took to social media to seemingly end his latest retirement, Usyk, who had said in the ring that he might not box again if it wasn’t for Fury, reiterated that view at the post-fight press conference and made it clear that Fury was the only boxer he had in mind.
“I dream of this every day,” Usyk said. “I’m going to punch his ass.”
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The importance of Usyk’s victory to his war-torn nation was also clear. Usyk had a Ukrainian flag signed by soldiers on the front lines in his dressing room before the fight and then displayed another one at the front of the stage at the press conference. He said he was also inspired by thoughts of the squad when he was having difficult times in the ring.
“This fight was extremely important for my country and my team and for me,” he said. “I’ve boxed for the whole country and half the world.
“That was different too [from the first fight with Joshua] that I couldn’t control my emotions, especially on lap nine. That was the only surprising element.
“In lap eight I saw in his eyes that he already felt like a winner. I kept telling myself, ‘You can’t stop, you can’t stop, you can’t stop.
“Some big things were at stake. And thank god the belts are coming back to Ukraine, the win is for us and Ukraine won.”
Usyk also said it was both his fighting spirit and skill that nullified Joshua’s physical advantage.
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“The reason the belts are coming to Ukraine is because Anthony didn’t use his physical advantage to the end,” he said. “Size doesn’t matter when you fight, that was a real war in the ring and then size doesn’t matter. Real spirit is at work here.”
Ron Lewis is a senior writer for BoxingScene. He was a boxing correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001 to 2019, covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights around the world. He has written about boxing for a variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.