Fury surrounds tactics in mystery at public training, Usyk camp sees ‘serious monk’

Tyson Fury did virtually nothing during today’s public in-ring workout in Riyadh ahead of his rematch with unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk.

The Gypsy King looked and sounded like a grumpy Fallen king, not a happy camper. Fury may not be happy with the many fans who aren’t giving the rematch against Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) any chance of winning on Saturday night.

So, to give them back, he is holding back, not giving of himself and showing a classic passive-aggressive behavior Fury is very easy to read.

Minimal movement

Fury’s actions today came down to these four things:

1. He entered the ring and took off his jacket
2. Put on your gloves
3. He took them out
4. A few words before leaving the ring

All the fans and media who came out to watch former WBC Heavyweight Champion Fury train today were left with very little to see as he held back his movement and demeanor.

From Fury’s point of view, it’s understandable that he didn’t want to waste energy working or give away anything that Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) could get.

Fury is approaching 37 years old, and he can’t afford to use up his precious energy in training because he’ll need everything he can get to move his massive 6’9″ frame around the ring on Saturday at night at the Kingdom Arena.

Silent treatment

It’s a sign of a bigger fighter when he conserves his energy during the final public workouts of his fight week. Younger fighters use the time to work hard, impress the fans and media, and stay flexible.

Fury has looked emaciated and exhausted this week, after recovering from a tough workout and a bad beating last May in his loss to Usyk. That fight took a lot of Fury, leaving him in the shattered physical state we’ve seen this week.

“A lot of pain,” Tyson Fury said when asked after today’s public workout what fans can expect for his fight against Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday night. “Crush and damage.”

“Too bad,” Fury said when asked by DAZN’s Claudia Trejo if he planned to clean shaven for Saturday. “Pain, badly hurt. Lots of damage.”

During the interview, she wanted more from Fury, but she wasn’t willing to give it to him. At that time, he he seemed almost childish. It was hard to watch that interview without feeling sorry for Trejo.

Fury couldn’t even be made to speak. You can also read it as a sign that he wants to save his precious energy for fighting because even talking uses up fuel. When you have to be at full strength, talking can take too much out of Fury. From watching the minimalist approach to training and the interview, you can now see that the loss to Usyk has affected Fury deeply.

Fury didn’t just clean it up like he’s been saying. He is mortally wounded, as one soldier hit by shell returning from the front line, unable to forget what happened and upset that he didn’t give more of himself during the battle. This is far worse than a soldier mentally dealing with battle fatigue to be bombarded. They are the ones who know they should have done more, but their nerves failed them.

Serious as a monk

“I see a completely different Tyson Fury. He doesn’t play anymore. We don’t see him smile. This man probably did his homework,” Usyk’s promoter Alex Krassyuk said of Tyson Fury as he watched him during his public workt in the ring today.

“He probably realized that spoiling, spending his energy with the media and making fun of his training camp is not the best idea. This time, he kept it serious like a monk,” Krassyuk said about Fury. “The most likely thing is that he will try to make some corrections in his technique and tactics.

“I expect it will be a much more dramatic fight than the first one. Oleksandr Usyk was always under his skin. Tyson tried to do it with Oleksandr, but he had the advantage. He doesn’t speak English fluently. We have a saying in Ukraine. “How more the bigger the wardrobe, the louder the noise when it falls.”