WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury is confident he will defeat Oleksandr Usyk in six rounds of action.
Fury, 34, has been pushing Usyk to fight him sooner rather than later in an uncontested matchup.
Usyk was in action last month in Saudi Arabia, when he retained the IBF, IBO, WBA and WBO heavyweight titles with a unanimous decision win in a rematch with Anthony Joshua.
Fury and head trainer SugarHill Steward have already started studying Usyk, and both believe the fight could be wrapped up in the first half.
“Me and SugarHill Steward are convinced that if it goes six rounds, it’s a shitty performance,” Fury told Seconds Out.
“I’ll take him down in six, for sure. And Sugar thinks I’ll take him down in four. So we actually have a bet on which one gets done first.”
Usyk has made it clear that he will not fight for the remainder of the year. He wants his body to recover from last month’s physical defense and wants to spend time with his family. Usyk promised to be ready to face Fury in early 2023.
Fury is not pleased with the delay, threatening to take an interim fight in December.
Over the weekend, Fury began calling out Joshua for a New Year’s Eve showdown in the UK.
“Usyk was calling me after his last fight with Joshua, I wrote back and said let’s do the fight this year, wherever they want to do it,” Fury said.
“I have been waiting for offers from countries and all of a sudden Usyk has said he doesn’t want to fight anymore, he wants to fight next year, not this year. So I’m not going to wait for anyone, I’m announcing a fight next week.”
