Tyson Fury weighed in at 262lbs for his undisputed heavyweight title fight against Oleksandr Usyk. The ‘Gypsy King’ tipped the scales at a similar weight as for his bout 18 months ago against Derek Chisora despite rumours about coming in considerably lighter. Fury was 256lbs for that trilogy before piling on the pounds to face Francis Ngannou last year at 277.7lbs.
Fury, 35, is six pounds heavier than against Chisora and only 15.7lbs lighter than for the Ngannou fight last October. It is fair to assume that Usyk, 37, will have expected his opponent to come in even slimmer than for the trilogy bout with his fellow Briton in December 2022.
However, the WBC champion is still lighter than usual and carrying less weight than in his second and third fights against Deontay Wilder. Usyk has equally come in heavier than expected.
The undisputed champion tipped the scales at 233.5lbs, 12.6lbs heavier than last time out against Daniel Dubois. That is a career heaviest weight for Usyk.
But Fury’s weight has been the story that has dominated fight week. Usyk acknowledged it on Tuesday to get the ball rolling.
Asked if he thought Fury looked smaller than usual live on DAZN’s coverage of the Grand Arrivals, Usyk concurred: “Yeah, a little bit, a little bit, like, skinny.” His promoter, Alex Krassyuk, joined him on the broadcast and shared a theory as to why.
“That’s because he’s nervous. When you get nervous, you lose weight,” he claimed. Before that, the promoter also quipped: “Who’s the middleweight now?”
Fury played up to that theory when having those comments put to him minutes later, albeit sarcastically. “I’m very nervous, Usyk,” he said. “Please don’t beat me up on Saturday night. Please. Extra please.”
Speaking later on, he somewhat overestimated his own weight, stating that he was around 19 stone. Three days later he has now weighed in at 18st 7lb.
A stone lighter than against Ngannou, it is the slimmest he has been for five-and-a-half years since the first Wilder fight. That was just his third fight back after his two-and-a-half-year hiatus following the Wladimir Klitschko win to become unified champion.
