Trainer Malik Scott believes the lean Tyson Fury for his upcoming fight against the unified heavyweight champion is a signal that we’re going to see the Gypsy King that fought Deontay Wilder in their first fight of their trilogy in 2018.
Malik feels that the lean 256-lb version of Fury that fought Wilder six years ago was the best one. He was moving, using feints, and harder to hit than what he’s become since he started putting on weight and changing his style to be more of a slugger and grappler. The weight that WBC champion Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) has taken off for his back-to-back training camps for his undisputed championship fight against IBF/WBA/WBO champ Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs) is a testament to the hard training that he’s done. Malik notes that Fury’s body is not designed to easily lose weight without training hard and digging down.
A More Agile and Elusive Fury
“Fury’s weight is down. Fury is one of those guys if his weight is down, it means he’s been training extremely hard. He can’t get his weight off by going just two times a week. For Fury to get his weight off and have a certain type of body, he has to be digging,” said trainer Malik Scott to Sean Zittel’s YouTube channel, talking about WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury having lost a lot of weight for his fight against IBF/WBA/WBO champ Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday night.
“His body says he’s been digging, and him being in great shape makes it even more of an interesting fight. It gives Usyk a lot more problems to deal with. My favorite Fury is Wilder-Fury 1. The tricky Fury, not the vulnerable Fury that’s had much success now.” We don’t know if the weight loss will magically transform Fury into the fighter who fought Wilder in their first fight in 2018. That’s not just weight. That’s youth as well because Fury was 29 years old in that fight and a lot younger than he is now at 35. The good news is that even if Fury isn’t able to move and avoid shots like he did against Wilder, he doesn’t have to worry about getting knocked out against Usyk because he doesn’t possess the same kind of power.
“I like the small Fury that does a lot of shaking and baking, that feints, that does eye decoys, and it’s in a rhythm. When his weight is down, that is the Fury he is,” said Malik.
The Challenge of Facing Usyk
“It’s going to be interesting to have that same style against one of the best southpaws in the history of the sport,” said Malik. “Everyone knows Usyk doesn’t like it to the body, but who beat him? The guys that fight him know that, but they’re not able to do nothing about it. When people try to get to his body, he makes them pay. He steps around.” It’s going to be risky for the 6’9″ Fury to throw to the body of Usyk because he’ll need to dip down, and that’s going to leave his head exposed.
If Fury still had the steel chin that he once possessed, it wouldn’t be a problem, but Wilder has taken away his ability to take shots like he once did by knocking him down repeatedly in their three fights. “He’ll feint and when you bite, he’ll get you,” Malik said about Usyk’s lead hand feints. “Before you know it, your head is popping up. You don’t see the shots coming because they’re so fast.”
The punches that Usyk throws are more than hard enough to knockout Fury if he lands enough of them. He stopped his last opponent Daniel Dubois in the ninth round last time out.
