‘He will be different with me’: Oleksandr Usyk expects Tyson Fury to be better prepared for their unification

Heavyweight titleholder Oleksandr Usyk is still gearing up for what he hopes and expects will be a February fight against Tyson Fury. Fury is coming of what many consider to be a pretty underwhelming and embarrassing performance in his decision win over MMA fighter Francis Ngannou, but Usyk isn’t taking any false sense of confidence from Fury’s showing that night — which is not to say he lacks any confidence.

As Usyk states it, it was pretty obvious that Fury didn’t take Ngannou all that seriously as an opponent, and tells Sky Sports he believes Fury will be come in much better form when they meet inside the ring.

“I think that Tyson Fury underestimated Francis Ngannou,” Usyk said. “He will be different with me. I think he will make some conclusions after his last fight.

“But again, I absolutely don’t care about how he’ll behave. What I care for is how I will behave.”

In the interim, however, Usyk still awaits for the specific formalities of an undisputed heavyweight unification with Fury, with a date to be set in stone. And surely Fury will want and need to take that camp much more seriously.