Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk had to break away from each other after an 11-minute face-off before their title fight.
Heavyweight boxing world champion Oleksandr Usyk and challenger Tyson Fury had to be torn apart after a duel lasting more than 11 minutes at a press conference earlier their title fight on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The pair held the position for 11 minutes and 20 seconds before being separated, with Fury, 36, taunting Usyk, 37, who eventually walked away with his arms raised as if in victory.
It was only towards the end of the confrontation in Riyadh, in which World Boxing Council (WBC) president Mauricio Sulaiman intervened to try to separate the pair, that things became more heated, with Usyk coolly making his case while Fury became increasingly animated an attempt was made to pull him away.
Ukrainian fighter Usyk defeated Fury, who was born in Manchester, UK. in a split points decision in May to unify the heavyweight belts. However, the latter immediately triggered conditions in the fight that allowed for a rematch.
“Now we just have a performance with lights and cameras. “Everything will take place on Saturday,” Usyk calmly told reporters before the pair’s usual face-to-face meeting on stage.
In keeping with the tone of the event and the matter still to come, Fury said he would be “doling out a whole lot of pain” at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh on Saturday evening.
“I have nothing to say other than there will be a lot of injury and pain in this fight, you see,” he added.
“That’s all I have to say. The conversation is over. The first fight I talked about I was joking – my whole career – but this time I’m serious. I will cause serious damage. Watch me go to work.
Usyk’s trainer, Sergey Lapin, answered as succinctly as his fighter: “This Saturday we will have the fight between two great champions, where one will prove that he is the stronger man.”
Usyk was by far the more temperate of the two in the lead-up to the fight, with Fury apparently wanting to turn up the temperature.
The Ukrainian boxer, who relinquished the International Boxing Federation (IBF) title to mandatory challenger Daniel Dubois immediately after unifying the belts, was deemed the winner by two of the judges 115-112 and 114-113 in the pair’s previous meeting, during Fury was awarded the nod 114-113 by a third.
“The first fight was great; It was a very close fight,” said Fury’s promoter Frank Warren. “This time, I know these guys who shared the ring for twelve rounds, it’s going to be about who can exploit the weaknesses.
“I believe Tyson Fury will get through this and I believe it won’t go the distance. Tyson is in great shape and we are going to have a very special event.”
The pair will face off again at Friday’s weigh-in ahead of the highly anticipated fight.
