Fight Hype was able to catch up with boxing analyst Timothy Bradley to get his take on a potential undisputed heavyweight unification match between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk as well as what Anthony Joshua must change if he’s to beat Usyk in their rematch. Check out some of what Bradley had to say below.
On a prospective fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk
“I think it’s a good fight. I think Tyson Fury might be a little bit too big for Usyk. Usyk is a very good technical boxer, so is Tyson Fury. Tyson Fury can press forward, he can box off the back foot, he’s very long, 85” reach, he can lay on Usyk — I mean there’s a lot that he can do.
“I think it’ll be an interesting first half but I think the second half Fury will definitely figure out how to get to Usyk — the face that Usyk’s a small heavyweight. And the way you beat a guy like Usyk is you put the pressure on. That’s how you beat him.”
On the idea that Anthony Joshua would be too big for Usyk and that not working out for him
“Yeah but Joshua didn’t come to fight. It’s a different mentality. Joshua, his mentality is way different than Tyson Fury. Joshua’s okay, it just seems like he’s comfortable with losing a fight. He gracious and whatever you want to call it...but it’s too easy for me, boss...It’s hard to train when you’ve got the whole world at your feet, bro. It’s hard to train and stay focused and stay dedicated and having that hunger and desire, bro. Because success, that weakens (the mind), and I think in the Ruiz fight — I think that ruined him.
“I think that ruined his confidence, I think he’s also scared to get hit. He’s gun shy, don’t wanna throw because he’s afraid of getting hit. So that’s why you didn’t see him throw. I mean, Usyk’s a small heavyweight but he does have some snap on his shots but he’s the bigger guy, he needs to act like he’s the bigger guy. It’s almost like he’s a big guy but he has a small guy mentality. He needs to switch that around and I think the only way is he has to have a talk with himself. That’s the only way to fix that, he has to talk with himself and say ‘hey, how do you want to be remembered?’...where’s the guy that fought Klitschko? Where’s that guy? You bring that guy out, you beat a guy like Usyk.
“It seemed like he starting to get the game plan but then he just kinda ran out of juice and he was just okay, he just laid down like ‘alright well I’m okay with just losing, it’s fine, I’ve lost before. I got the rematch clause, the whole nine.’”