Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk had to be pulled away from each other after an 11-minute faceoff ahead of their title fight.
Heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk and challenger Tyson Fury had to be pulled apart following a more than 11-minute faceoff at a press conference ahead of 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, shouting taunts at Usyk, 37, who eventually walked away with arms aloft as though in victory.
Only towards the end of the confrontation in Riyadh, in which World Boxing Council (WBC) President Mauricio Sulaiman stepped in to try to break up the pair, did matters become heated, with Usyk coolly standing his ground while Fury became increasingly animated as an attempt was made to pull him away.
Ukrainian fighter Usyk defeated Fury, who was born in Manchester, the United Kingdom, in a split-points decision in May to unify the heavyweight belts. But the latter immediately triggered terms in the fight allowing a rematch.
“Now we have just a performance with lights and cameras. Everything will take place on Saturday,” Usyk calmly told reporters even before the customary face-to-face encounter between the pair on stage.
In keeping with the tone of the event, and matter still to come, Fury said he would “dish out a whole lot of pain” at Riyadh’s Kingdom Arena on Saturday night.
“I’ve got nothing to say, apart from there is going to be a lot of hurt and pain in this fight, you watch,” he added.
“That’s all I got to say. Talking’s been done. The first fight I talked, I joked – all my career – this time, I am serious. I am going to do some serious damage. Watch me go to work.”
Usyk’s trainer, Sergey Lapin, was as concise as his fighter in retort: “This Saturday we will have the battle between two great champions where one will prove he is the stronger man.”
Usyk has been by far the more measured of the pair throughout the build-up to the fight, with Fury appearing to want to raise the temperature.
The Ukrainian boxer, who relinquished the International Boxing Federation (IBF) title to mandatory challenger Daniel Dubois immediately after unifying the belts, was judged winner 115-112 and 114-113 by two of the judges in the pair’s previous meeting, while Fury was given the nod 114-113 by a third.
“The first fight was magnificent; it was a very close fight,” Fury’s promoter Frank Warren said. “This time around I know these guys, who shared the ring for 12 rounds, it will be about who can exploit the weaknesses.
“I believe Tyson Fury will come through this and I believe it won’t go the distance. Tyson is in great shape and we are going to get an extra, extra special event.”
The pair will face off again at the weigh-in on Friday ahead of the much-anticipated fight.
