Tyson Fury would have preferred to fight Oleksandr Usyk on December 23 but is willing to endure a “s**t Christmas” to become undisputed champion in February

By Declan Taylor

TYSON FURY has stopped in need of cancelling Christmas altogether but did concede that his regular ‘15-pint’ session may have to be tempered with the undisputed fight with Oleksandr Usyk looming.

Fury and Usyk had been supposed to fight on December 23 till debutant Francis Ngannou put a knife by way of these plans together with his spirited efficiency in Riyadh final month.

It means the highest two in the division will now fight again in Saudi on February 17 which has meant a reshuffle for Fury’s Christmas plans.

“It wasn’t my ideal date,” Fury stated of February 17. “I needed the twenty third as a result of then I might have had a good Christmas and now I’m going to have a shit Christmas.

“I can’t go and get 4st heavier now, like I would like to. This date will maintain me in form and provides me one thing to take into consideration. It’s solely a few weeks after so not too unhealthy.

“I’ll nonetheless have a correct Christmas day with the household, it’s not that critical that I have to cancel Christmas is it?

“Me and Joe Parker usually go to the boozer next door, while the dinner is getting made, and have 15 pints but this time he can do it and I can’t because he will be celebrating his win on the 23rd and I will still be in camp.”

Parker is one of many fighters who might really feel like all his Christmases got here without delay when Saudi’s General Entertainment Authority determined to press forward with a main occasion on December 23 in the absence of Fury-Usyk.

He was matched with Deontay Wilder in the co-main occasion whereas Anthony Joshua and Otto Wallin will fight in the opposite headliner.

“I have made them all millionaires but everyone can look after themselves,” Fury added. “I simply want them good luck and good well being and a good Christmas current.

“But what a Christmas current they have acquired now, all of them want to thank Saudi boxing as a result of it has been on a nostril dive. Without me this wouldn’t be attainable. I have launched Saudi Arabia and boxing to one another.

“But I am not here for pats on the back and all that, I have my own fight in February.”

That fight was formally confirmed on Thursday evening at a press convention on the similar Outernet venue on Tottenham Court Road the place Fury’s showdown with Ngannou was initially introduced.

Fury has been famously denigrating Usyk for the reason that (*23*) rise from unified cruiserweight champion to heavyweight maverick. The Morecambe resident has dismissed the 36-year-old as a middleweight who merely lacks the requisite bodily attributes to win a fight with a 6ft 9in man. He has additionally labelled him a sausage and an unsightly bog-eyed rabbit cat.

But, away from the glare of the cameras, there have been no insults on Wednesday as Fury sat down to talk about his subsequent opponent.

“As a fighter he’s done everything that can be done, so you have to respect him,” Fury stated.

“He’s come from Ukraine, I don’t from what kind of background but in all probability a poor one. He’s performed unbelievable, identical to Wilder, Joshua, Parker, myself. We’ve all performed unbelievable, we’re all multimillionaires who have modified our stars for the higher.

“You have to respect him and admire him. I don’t really know him as a man because I’ve never been out with him for a beer or socialised.  But from what I’ve seen he’s a God-fearing family man.”

However, as soon as the 2 groups sat down on the high desk, with Usyk flanked by Egis Klimas and Alex Krassyuk, Fury reverted to sort.

“You lot are all dossers and he’s getting knocked out,” Fury stated, peering down the desk.

“I’m gonna bust him… sausage. Ugly little man rabbit. You know what’s coming, you’re getting smashed, sausage. His bollocks have shrivelled up now, you little pussy. You’re getting knocked out motherfucker. And your two promoters will be working for me as bag carriers.”

It’s all a part of the bundle when it comes to Fury. The GEA Chairman Turki Al-Alshikh, who was personally thanked by Frank Warren, watched down from the mezzanine ground of the venue.

“Before I kick off anymore I want to say thank you for Turki Al-Alshikh for putting it on. All these fights seemed impossible to make but Turki seems to have made them all in five minutes.”

Usyk, verbally overpowered by Fury, spoke solely often. “I want to tell you the story of David and Goliath,” he stated. “When the lord gives me Tyson in my hands I will do my job.”

“Impossible,” Tyson retorted. “The lord would by no means ship me to you, son. Never. Especially a man carrying earrings. Believe that. When you go to sleep at evening you’re going to consider me. Think of me, as a result of I’m going to punch your face in.

“Is this my hardest fight? Nowhere near, easy fight. He’s a slick southpaw boxer, not the biuggest puncher in the world or the strongest man in the world. I can outbox him or get on the front foot and slaughter him. There is more than one way for me to skin this cat.”

Then, to add a barely weird twist to the night, Sylvestre Stallone appeared from nowhere to participate in the most recent Fury-Usyk photograph alternative alongside Turki Al-Alshikh, who raised each his fists.

The most vital fight of the Saudi period is 13 weeks away.