‘God has a plan for everybody’: Fury and Usyk reflect on first fight ahead of upcoming rematch

Both heavyweights will meet in the ring once again on December 21 in Riyadh.

Ahead of their upcoming heavyweight rematch, Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury sit down for a face to face conversation and re-watch what transpired in their first fight with some commentary from both fighters. Watching Usyk watch himself in the ring and giving himself advice leads to some pretty funny moments, but here are some excerpts of what both fighters had to say.

Usyk on how much fun he had in the ring against Fury

“When I come to the ring, I live there. Tyson too, I think. But when we fighters go to ring, more life. Preparation (barf), training (barf) — just fight.”

Fury on how he felt things were going one third of the way into the fight

“I thought it was going good. I thought it was a good fight until this point. Good styles make good fights and it’s a clash of styles, the left-handed vs the right-handed, he’s moving forward, I’m boxing...it lived up to all the expectations.”

Fury on how it feels to watch what transpired the first time around

“I’m happy, very happy. Good fight. Listen, he got the decision — fantastic. I’m a big believer in God. So I believe God has a plan for everybody and the plan was for Usyk to win this fight, and he did so fair play.”

Usyk on whether he felt he could hurt Fury in the later rounds

“I didn’t want to damage him. I know the game of boxing. After the fight he would go back to his family. For this reason there’s no need to hurt him.

“I know he’s a very smart fighter and recovers very fast.”

Fury on what we can expect from him in rematch

“Pretty much similar, the same from what I did before, good boxing. Someone of my size and heaviness, it’s not normal that I should be able to box and move and slip. So why would I take that away from my game? I wouldn’t. People say to me ‘oh you need to walk forward on Usyk, walk him down and hit him.’ But if it was so easy to do that then why didn’t Joshua do it, who’s a big strong man who fights (behind a high guard)? Why didn’t Dubois do it who also fights (behind a high guard). Them men are limited compared to me, very limited.”