Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk will enter the ring Saturday night at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with a chance to make boxing history.
The winner of their heavyweight unification fight will be crowned the first undisputed heavyweight world champion in the modern four-belt era.
With boxing history at stake, DAZN lists the keys to victory for Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) and Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs) ahead of their mega bout.
Oleksandr Usyk’s keys to victory
Assert the up jab early
Usyk has a sneaky up jab that tends to catch opponents off guard. He utilized the pointed weapon effectively in both victories over a taller Anthony Joshua. Considering he’s giving up six inches in height to Fury, it’d be wise to try to assert that up jab early against “The Gypsy King.” Doing so could impede Fury’s forward movement at times, allowing Usyk to move laterally and set up more offense.
Rely on footwork and angles to piece together combinations
The reigning unified WBA, WBO and IBF world heavyweight champion has exceptional footwork that he uses to change levels, keep opponents off balance and bring them to the brink of exhaustion from all their reactionary adjustments. He’s got to use that movement to force the bigger Fury into constantly moving himself.
While Usyk stays nimble on his feet, he must also work his angles to piece together slicing punch combinations. The Ukrainian’s ability to dance in and out the pocket and finagling the distance to catch Fury cleanly could spell the difference between Usyk leaving Saudi Arabia as the undisputed heavyweight king or not.
Keep action in center of the ring
Fury already owns six inches of height and seven inches of reach advantage over Usyk. By the time the bell rings for this fight, he’ll also own a significant weight edge as the larger man.
That’s why it’s vital that Usyk uses his aforementioned footwork to keep the action in the center of the ring as much as possible. We’ve witnessed Fury use his larger mass to lean on Deontay Wilder over their trilogy of fights, tiring out the “Bronze Bomber,” and he’s more than capable of using the same tactics against Usyk. It's Usyk's job to keep redirecting Fury.
Tyson Fury’s keys to victory
Be the bigger man and bully Usyk with size advantage
Throughout the buildup to this super fight, Fury has maintained size does matter and the natural cruiserweight in Usyk will not be able to overcome his physical deficits despite his boxing brilliance.
To ensure that, Fury has got to use his weight as the naturally bigger man to his advantage and bully Usyk every chance he gets. That means tying up the unified world heavyweight champion often, while smothering him with his weight. Forcing his larger frame on Usyk and making the Ukrainian push him off will go long ways in sapping Usyk's energy and possibly leaving him ripe for the picking with a damaging shot.
Test Usyk with body shots
Fury and promoter Frank Warren have Usyk scouted well when it comes to his perceived history of not liking body shots.
During last month’s press conference, Warren even told the media “he is a bit of a crybaby when it comes to getting caught to the body.”
Possibly lending credence to this notion was Usyk’s fight against Daniel Dubois last August. During the fifth round, Dubois dropped Usyk with a body punch just below the Ukrainian’s belt line. The shot was controversially ruled a low blow, giving Usyk five minutes to recover. However, upon instant replays, many fans and critics alike believed that the body punch was not a low blow at all and that it truly knocked the wind out of Usyk. Many felt like it should have been counted as a knockdown were it not for the way the unified champion played up to it being an illegal shot.
All this being said, Fury has got to make early deposits to Usyk’s body to take his temperature on whether he could withstand such shots. That commitment can also hinder Usyk’s brilliant footwork and movement which could lead to Fury physically overwhelming him en route to owning all the heavyweight titles.
Be the best Tyson Fury possible
Fury just didn’t look like the savvy, sharp “Gypsy King” that we’ve become accustomed with in his split-decision win over Francis Ngannou last October.
The WBC heavyweight titleholder had too many lulls in his guard, which led to him being dropped, and he can’t afford that to happen against as skilled of a boxer as Usyk.
Learning from that experience and not having any mental lapses, Fury by simply putting his best foot forward could prove to be way too much for Usyk to handle.
His combination of physical attributes, astute boxing and true heavyweight power could overwhelm Usyk. However, it starts with Fury’s mentality. If his thinking is clear and focused and he’s able to execute his boxing blueprint, there’s no reason to think that Fury shouldn’t exit Saudi Arabia as the sweet science’s first undisputed heavyweight champion of the modern four-belt era.