Roy Jones Jr insists Oleksandr Usyk will have to make Tyson Fury respect his power if he hopes to beat him.
The Ukrainian slickster is not known for being a massive puncher, particularly at heavyweight, where he is on the smaller end of the spectrum.
At cruiserweight, he racked up a few impressive stoppages, most notably his vicious knockout of Tony Bellew in 2018.
But since moving up in weight the majority of his fights have gone the distance, barring Chazz Witherspoon retiring on his stool and Daniel Dubois seeing out a count on his knee.
Instead, Usyk has won most of his fights by using his superior speed and fundamentals to thoroughly outbox his opposition.
However, Jones Jr anticipates this won’t be enough to defeat Fury when they duke it out for the undisputed heavyweight crown on May 18.
“Usyk is a great tactician but he’s not all that explosive,” Jones Jr told Darren Bent and Troy Deeney on talkSPORT Drive on Thursday afternoon.
“If he was explosive it would be a problem. When you are smaller coming up to the big guys you’ve got to bring explosives to the ring or they won’t respect you.
“If he can’t find those explosives before that fight takes place he will not beat Tyson Fury, I don’t care what they say.
“Tyson Fury didn’t take Ngannou seriously and he didn’t look the way he should have against Ngannou but he’s still Tyson Fury and he’s definitely going to take Usyk seriously.”
Fury will have a significant height and weight advantage come fight night.
‘The Gypsy King’ is 6ft 9in and tends to weigh in at around 270lb for his fights.
Meanwhile, Usyk stands at 6ft 3inch and will likely be 50lb lighter.
Although he is the bigger man it may prove to be a hindrance to Fury, who is often faster and more agile than his opponents.
The last former cruiserweight world champion he fought, Steve Cunningham, weighed in at 210lb for their bout in 2013 and caused him all kinds of problems, even dropping Fury in the second round.
Of course, Fury went on to stop Cunningham but it serves as evidence that smaller fighters can be problematic for the lineal heavyweight champion.