Alexander Volkanovski backs Tyson Fury to beat Oleksandr Usyk - "I'm going to go with the size here"
Alexander Volkanovski feels Tyson Fury's size will help him win against Oleksandr Usyk in the heavyweight title unification bout on May 18. Apart from being a highly anticipated stylistic matchup, the fight is historically significant as the winner will become the first undisputed heavyweight world champion since Lennox Lewis defeated Evander Holyfield in 1999.
The size difference between Fury and Usyk has been one of the biggest talking points heading into the fight. While Fury stands at 6'9" tall with an 85" reach, Usyk is 6'3" tall with a 78" reach.
Volkanovski, the former UFC featherweight champion, discussed the fight in a recent YouTube video. While he believes the fight will be a closely contested affair, Volkanovski thinks that size advantage will tip the scales in Fury's favor. He said:
"Who am I going to lean towards? I'm going to go with the size here. I'm going to go with Tyson Fury. Again, Usyk is a great fighter. I love watching him fight. But Tyson Fury, again, a good fighter, I love watching him fight. A good dude as well. I don't mind the bloke at all. But the size - I think it can be reasonably even but I'm going to go with the size here. I feel Tyson's going to get the win with."
Catch Alexander Volkanovski's comments below (3:58):
Alexander Volkanovski highlights a crucial reason why Tyson Fury might struggle against Oleksandr Usyk
During an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Tyson Fury confessed that Steve Cunningham was the toughest opponent of his boxing career, professional or amateur.
Cunningham was a lifelong cruiserweight and Fury enjoyed a massive size advantage in their IBF heavyweight title eliminator bout in 2013. While 'The Gypsy King' won the fight via KO in Round 7, Cunningham knocked Fury down in Round 2 and was leading the fight on the scorecards.
Fury admitted that he struggled to deal with Cunningham's speed, evasive movement, and overall excellent boxing game despite being the bigger and more powerful fighter.
Speaking further in the aforementioned YouTube video, Alexander Volkanovski highlighted that Oleksandr Usyk can present similar kinds of problems to Fury. 'The Great' implied that Fury's success against Usyk will depend upon his learnings from the Cunningham fight:
"So now, is he going above and beyond preparing for this obviously odd-shaped sort of opponent that he's not used to - a smaller stockier type of guy that moves so well? Is he going to make sure he's doing the right kind of practice or taking it very seriously? Like, 'last time I had a smaller guy I struggled here.' So is he going to make the fight adjustments?" [4:54]
Fury vs. Usyk will headline the Ring of Fire boxing event scheduled to take place on May 18 at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Fury is a -130 favorite heading into the highly anticipated showdown while Usyk is the +100 underdog.