Carl Froch doubts whether Tyson Fury can train through Christmas and not be tempted by a festive feast.
Fury is preparing to take on Oleksandr Usyk in Saudi Arabia on February 17 with the two world champions meeting to crown the first undisputed heavyweight ruler since Lennox Lewis in 1999. The fight had been expected to take place two days before Christmas but Fury demanded it be delayed after he was almost beaten by Francis Ngannou in October.
Fury was knocked down by the former UFC champion and was left with a cut. Usyk ultimately agreed to wait another two months for his chance to win the only heavyweight belt to have eluded him. And Froch has questioned whether Fury has the discipline to train over the festive period.
Tyson’s got to get through Christmas and New Year, not relax, not have a drink, not overeat,” he said on his podcast. “It’s going to be a tough one. He’s got a wonderful family, his wife and seven children, so he’ll want to relax and have a good time. “Is he going to want to be training over Christmas and New Year which he’s going to have to do if he’s ready for the February event? I’m not sure, I think the fight will be pushed back to March. You heard it here first.”
Fury, however, has no doubt he will be the first man to inflict defeat on Usyk. “I’m going to bust him up. Sausage. Ugly little man. Rabbit. Run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run,” he said. “You know what’s coming? You’re getting smashed to pieces, sausage. You’re fighting the best British heavyweight there’s ever been.
“You’ve beaten the rest of them, but you haven’t beaten Tyson Fury, sausage. “You can never beat me. If you beat me in your dreams you better wake up and apologise. I stole that from Muhammad Ali, I apologise. When you sleep at night ugly man you’re going to think of me for the next eight weeks. I’m going to punch your face in. You ugly little man.
“We’ve both been chosen and there can only be one winner. I’m going to become the undisputed champion. More than that, I’m destined to cement my legacy as the number one fighter of this era. To do that I’ve got to beat this little man, which is easier said than done because he’s a tricky boxer, slick and all of that.
“But I’ve seen many like him before and when they fight the big men, they struggle. And he will struggle on February 17. I will break him. He’s a middleweight, but it’s not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog and he’s obviously got a lot of fight in him. But when you meet a big man who is a lot bigger but also has the fight inside him, let’s put it in a nutshell – you’re f****d.”
