John Fury, the father of WBC world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, is urging his son to make a change to his gameplan ahead of the undisputed heavyweight title showdown with Oleksandr Usyk.
After months of negotiations, Fury and Usyk will finally meet on February 17 for all the marbles in Saudi Arabia in a fight which will determine the number one fighter in the division.
Since his second meeting with Deontay Wilder in 2021, Fury's fighting style has become more aggressive winning three of his four fights since that contest via stoppage.
However, with Usyk known for his silky movement and footwork, Fury may find it difficult to impose himself on the Ukrainian who has the attributes to avoid any power punches that will come his way.
In an interview with Boxing Social via Free Bets, John Fury was quick to point out the problems his son may face and believes that the strategies adopted in past meetings with Wilder and Francis Ngannou may not be enough to walk away with all four world heavyweight title belts come the final bell.
“He needs a different style all-together with Usyk, he’s totally different. If you go back to, many years ago, you can watch it on the internet, it’s Gerry Cooney-Michael Spinks and Michael Spinks is a blown-up light-heavyweight weighing just over fourteen stone at the time," Fury said.
"Gerry Cooney is six-foot-seven, eighteen stone, look what happened. These are speed-men, you just can’t have that straight-up, going forward, looking to land a bomb on these kind of fighters because guess what? They can see it coming and they will avoid it.
“Usyk is very good, he is a good mover, he’s got a brain, he’s got good footwork and the style for Deontay Wilder and Francis Ngannou isn’t going to cut it for a man like Usyk.”