By Declan Taylor
OLEKSANDR USYK has warned Team Fury that no quantity of struggle week antics will ‘destabilise’ his quest to turn into undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.
Monday’s first struggle week occasion was marred by violence as John Fury, father of Tyson, headbutted a smaller member of Usyk’s crew, Stanislav Stepchuk, as the 2 fighters performed quite a lot of interviews on the Hilton in central Riyadh.
Fury Sr, who was left reduce and bleeding from the pinnacle, apologised for the altercation whereas Stepchuk walked away largely unscathed.
Usyk later sat down for his media roundtable with the British press and smiled when the incident was introduced up. As he spoke, his crew stood round and he gestured in direction of them when he evaluated what had occurred within the foyer.
“We are professional athletes, not street fighters and this is a big event for our people, the UK and Ukraine,” Usyk mentioned.
“My team is very good at wanting to fight, not boxing, street fighting, shooting, knives, wrestling. But I said ‘hey, hey guys, get back’. We had to behave properly.”
“The situation doesn’t matter to me, it’s just more motivation for my team. If they want to destabilise my team, it’s not possible. Because I don’t just have professional coaches and trainers, I have professional soldiers.”
On Stepchuk, who grew to become an unlikely protagonist within the story of the day, Usyk added: “My pal did not bleed as a result of he’s a strong man.
“He is a road man. Did you see the video, he was like a Pitbull, ruff! I mentioned ‘stop!’ and so they mentioned OK. He’s solely my pal, it’s a secret who the troopers are in my crew.
“Of course it’s disappointing that it occurred at an occasion like this, as a result of it’s about self-discipline. I’m not dissatisfied by my crew, they’re dissatisfied as a result of I pulled them again and stopped them from preventing.
“They wanted to go, they were looking over at me waiting for the signal to go. They were waiting for the thumbs up but I gave them the thumbs down. ‘Back, back please,” I mentioned. And they have been not joyful.”
Usyk, who faces Fury within the first undisputed heavyweight struggle since 1999 and the primary ever with the 4 main belts on the road, additionally declared that victory on the Kingdom Arena will nonetheless not be sufficient to trump his best boxing triumph.
“My gold medal will always be better than undisputed,” says Usyk, who grew to become 91kg champion at London 2012.
“Everyone who does sport – any sport, boxing, judo karate – all of them dream of the Olympic video games.“I do know males with three world championships medals however no Olympic gold – solely bronze. I did two Olympics and solely acquired one medal.“It takes 4 years, my last opponent Clemente Russo had finished 4 Olympics, nonetheless no gold medal, in 16 years.
“The Olympics takes 4 years however a world title belt is straightforward, you may get one in six months, or a yr. But skilled boxing is a enterprise for some folks.
“For me it’s sport however for lots of people it’s a enterprise, it’s cash, belts, fame.
For me, first, it’s a sport.”
Even so, Usyk already has a plan for the 4 belts ought to he go away Saudi Arabia with them within the maintain.
“I will take them back home,” he provides. “I have four belts coming for four children, two for my sons and two for my daughters, one each.”
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