Francis Ngannou shocked the world with his creditable performance against Tyson Fury last month, with the MMA star even registering a knockdown of the WBC world heavyweight champion.
While Ngannou was earning plaudits for his professional boxing debut, Fury's lacklustre performance in the same fight raised questions despite him ultimately winning the bout on the judges' scorecards.
Next up for Fury is an undisputed world heavyweight title fight against WBA (Super), IBF, WBO and IBO titleholder Oleksandr Usyk in February. Usyk was in attendance for Fury's fight with Ngannou, and he'll have seen first-hand how his opponent performed against the Cameroonian.
Despite this, Usyk's promoter insists that nothing will have changed for the Ukrainian fighter in terms of preparation for February's highly anticipated title bout.
"Let me say, the Francis Ngannou fight didn’t change his mindset," Alex Krassyuk told Betway.
"He’s a very reasonable and wise man and understands that sometimes, s—ty days happen and that was a completely s—ty day for Tyson. There can be different reasons for it but that was one of the worst performances we have ever seen by Tyson Fury.
"But it doesn’t mean on February 17 we will see the Tyson Fury that fought Francis Ngannou."
In fact, Usyk's team feels that the Ngannou fight may have been a wake-up call for Fury and they expect a renewed focus from the Briton when the two champions meet in the ring.
"As a team, we discussed this issue and believe this will be the biggest and toughest fight of Tyson Fury’s career," Krassyuk said.
"He knows how hard he has to train and work to step into the ring with unified heavyweight and former undisputed cruiserweight champion.
"Tyson is the man and the thing that happened to him against Ngannou, he underestimated him and didn’t think he was a boxing man but Usyk is a boxing man and he will treat him with all of the seriousness he should give him.
"There is a size difference, a weight difference, boxing experience, boxing IQ, footwork and a difference in amateur experience.
"If you put all the factors on the table, there is no 100% answer – the answer will be found within the 12 rounds, and this is the fight for the undisputed heavyweight championship, and you can’t guarantee who is the winner but I am confident because I know how much work Usyk does in a training camp and how many challenges he overcomes."