Tyson Fury has hinted he could make a major tactical change in his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk.
Usyk became the first four-belt undisputed champion in heavyweight history after taking Fury’s WBC title and undefeated record in May.
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The Gypsy King gained 18st 7lb for the fight of his life, while Usyk was smaller at 16 stone.
But it appears Fury believes the 19st 11lb he weighed in before defeating Deontay Wilder in their 2021 trilogy bout was his optimal weight.
He posted a photo of himself before fighting Usyk and captioned it: “Was in the shape of my life. But this ain’t GK.”
Fury shared a photo from his Wilder Trilogy and said: “This is him. 19:11lbs bruiser.”
The former WBC champion weighed 18st 4lb in 2018 when he controversially scored a draw against 38-year-old Wilder after being floored twice.
But he moved up in weight to 19st 7lb for the rematch two years later, which he dominated for seven rounds.
And Fury moved a step further to 19st 11lb – a career heaviest – when he stopped Wilder in 11 thrilling rounds.
Despite complaining about weight gain, Fury, 36, said he would not be changing his coaching team ahead of his rematch with Usyk, 37, on December 21.
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His crowded corner, led by the Sugarhill stewards but also including assistant Andy Lee and Fury’s father John, came under fire.
John was particularly singled out by pundits for yelling at head trainer Sugarhill during precious 60 seconds in the corner.
But Fury has vowed to stick with his team after being scrutinized during the console release of the boxing video game obvious,
He said: “I know what I have to do, nothing drastic.
“People might say ‘I want to change trainers or I’ll blame it on my conditioning coach or I’ll blame it on the chef or I’ll blame it on the rat next door.’
“I’m not interested in all that. For me, it’s the same team, the same everything. I know what I have to do. I thought I won the fight last time.”
“I give him – I’ve been boxing my whole life and watching boxing my entire career – I give him eight, nine and ten rounds, and the ninth round was 10-8.
“So I took him out of the fight, but obviously the judges saw it a little different than some of them did.
“One of them got me the win. That was it. It was as close as it could get. I didn’t get the nod on the night, I’ll get back to it next time.”
