Jake Paul anticipates that Tyson Fury will be fighting with a ‘chip on his shoulder’ heading into his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk.
‘The Gypsy King’ is set to run it back with Usyk on December 21 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia after falling to defeat for the first time in his professional career against the Ukrainian slickster in May.
And he’s now won the WBC from FuryCredit: AFP
Usyk started stronger in the undisputed heavyweight clash but was outboxed in the middle rounds by Fury.
‘The Cat’ then rallied in the second half of the fight, winning the eighth frame before dropping and nearly stopping Fury in the ninth stanza en route to a hard-fought split decision victory.
In the end, the tight scorecards read 115-112 to Usyk, 114-113 to Fury, and 114-113 to Usyk with the knockdown proving to be decisive.
Ahead of their rematch, YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul sat down with talkSPORT’s MMA channel in Washington DC to give his thoughts on the blockbuster showdown.
“It’s going to be tough man. For sure [I had Usyk winning]. It was a very close fight, the last round is what swung it I believe,” he said.
“But Tyson does what Tyson does in rematches with a chip on his shoulder.
“He’s going to come back harder than ever but so will Usyk. It is going to be another close fight I believe.”
Paul then advised Fury on one thing that must change if he is to stand a chance in the second fight.
“Tyson just needs to let his hands go. [In the later rounds] he just stopped,” he added.
If Anthony Joshua can beat Daniel Dubois on September 21 and Fury exacts his revenge over Usyk, then Saudi boxing chief HE Turki Alalshikh insists they will fight each other next.
Paul insists Fury needs to let his hands go in the later rounds to stand a chance of beating UsykCredit: talkSPORT MMA
However, if either man loses then HE Alalshikh claims the door will still be open further down the line.
Speaking on an X Space with Charlie Parsons, he said: “I will tell you the clear answers.
“Even if they lost before it doesn’t mean everyone doesn’t want to see it.
“First of all if Usyk wins then he deserves to choose a big fight and this will be his right, right?
“If he chooses Joshua and Joshua accepts then we want to do this fight but still at the same time we want to see Tyson vs Joshua.
“Let’s see what Tyson will do on this night and whether he will give us on December 21 a great fight then for sure we want to see him against Joshua.
“This would be huge for the fans and for boxing.”