Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk had to be separated by security after the “Gypsy King”vowed to knock the Ukrainian out when they clash with the undisputed heavyweight title on the line in Saudi Arabia in February. The fighters came face to face on Thursday to announce their long-awaited showdown in the Middle East, with Fury telling Usyk he will be “smashed to pieces”.
WBC champion Fury (34-0-1) will face three-belt champion Usyk (21-0) in Riyadh on February 17, with the fight finally agreed after negotiations for a 2022 showdown broke down. But a money-spinning deal has been done with the Saudi General Entertainment Authority, and Fury was brimming with confidence at Thursday’s launch press conference in London.
He said: “I already relieved one Ukrainian (Wladimir Klitschko) of all the belts, and I’m going to relieve that idiot of the belts I gave him. I’m going to bust him, sausage, ugly little man, rabbit. You know what’s coming, you’re getting smashed to pieces, sausage. You’re fighting the best British heavyweight there has ever been, the f****** Dauntless in these waters. You beat the rest of them, but you ain’t beating Tyson Fury.
You are getting knocked out, mother-f*****. You can’t beat me, you can never beat me. When you sleep at night, ugly man, you’re going to think of me for the next eight weeks. Think of me because I’m going to punch your face in.”
Fury then took a more serious tone. He said: “This is the most important one. We are both undefeated, I’m a champion and he’s a champion, it’s going to be a fight for the ages. I am destined to become the undisputed champion and I am destined to cement my legacy as the number-one fighter of its era. To do that, I’ve got to beat this man. Easier said than done, he’s a tricky man, slick, a good boxer. But I’ve seen many people like him before and when they fight the big men, they struggle and he’s going to struggle on February 17. He will lose and I will break him, for sure.”
