Topics: Boxing, Tyson Fury, Oleksandr Usyk, Eddie Hearn
Eddie Hearn spoke out after a major error in Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk’s weigh-in.
Fury and Usyk go head-to-head on Saturday in a heavyweight bout in Riyadh, with the winner set to be crowned the first undisputed champion in the four-belt era and arguably the greatest heavyweight fighter of a generation.
A day earlier the pair clashed during the weigh-in, with Fury shoving Usyk in the chest and needing to be separated from the Ukrainian by security.
The Briton had come in at 18st 7lb (262lb) - his lightest in over four years.
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Yet, as expected, he was still significantly heavier than Usyk, despite the 37-year-old coming in at a career-heavy 16st (224lb). There was a major error when revealing Usyk’s weight, however, with officials having incorrectly announced at the weigh-in as 16st 6lb.
Matchroom Boxing chief Hearn, who promotes Anthony Joshua, was quick to call out the blunder on X, sarcastically writing: “Glad we debated and analysed Usyk being 233lb for the last 5 hours only to find out it was actually read out at 223.”
Moreover, Hearn claimed that Usyk was likely to beat Fury in the historic heavyweight clash.
He told Sky Sports: "What Usyk does so well is adapts, you have to have multiple game plans against Oleksandr Usyk because he can change it up at any time. He can box off the back foot, he can box in a ring within the ring, he can put pressure on you, he can be a volume puncher, he can move, he's got everything.
"I've always got it wrong when I've picked what Tyson Fury is going to do. In the second fight against Deontay Wilder, he said he would go on the front foot and walk him down, that was madness, he did it and it was beautiful tactics.
"I think in this fight with the weight he's going to try and box and move a bit like he did with Klitschko. By doing that he's going to let Usyk walk him down, throw those volume punches and win rounds, you can't just win rounds by flinging out the jab and holding and pot-shotting.
"Fury might have to change his game plan during the fight. Two great tacticians, two great ring IQs in there, but really difficult to overcome Usyk mentally.
"In there on the night, I remember Tony Bellew saying that he just exhausts you with his pressure and his feet, the way you're always thinking 'what's he going to do next?'"
