Fury ‘different’ ahead of Usyk rematch, says training partner

Tyson Fury’s training partner Moses Itauma says the British boxer is “a lot different” ahead of his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk on Sunday (AEDT) in Riyadh.

Fury and Usyk clashed seven months ago in the first heavyweight unification fight for 25 years.

Both were undefeated heading into the bout, and while Fury was a slight favourite across boxing betting sites, Usyk claimed a split decision.

Fury is a +110 underdog at Bovada to win the rematch, but Itauma has observed a shift in his teammate.

“He’s a lot different,” he said.

“His mentality has switched.

“He wasn’t the nice guy anymore.

“He was actually there to train.

“Normally, when I did train with him in Saudi and Morecambe, we would spar together, bag, circuits together, run together, do strength and conditioning together, but this time he was like solely focused on doing it by himself.

“He was like, ‘I’m a lone soldier, I’m a lone wolf’.

“He would get hit with a good shot and he was screaming.

“I was like, ‘This guy’s a lunatic’.

“But to be in this sport you need to be a little bit mad.”

Fury has insisted in the build-up that he thinks he won their first fight in May, and Itauma believes he is motivated to prove a point.

“I don’t think Tyson’s doing this for the money,” he said.

“So, if he’s not doing it for the money, what is he doing it for?

“Because he actually wants to beat Oleksandr Usyk.

“If he did do it for the money, he would have packed up a long time ago.

“So, with that in mind, people need to bear that in mind.

“Saturday night, it’s going to be Tyson Fury coming to fight, coming to win.

“I don’t feel like he’s going to just come and get knocked over, because he could have just not trained.

“Trust me, I was in the training camp, he was training hard.”

Boxing odds have Fury’s best chance of victory as a knockout, with Bovada returning +300 for a KO, TKO or DQ in the Brit’s favour.

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