‘unless you are trained to do that, what can you say?’ John Fury criticises Tyson Fury’s trainers ahead of undisputed fight

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The lineal heavyweight champion’s father, John Fury, criticised his son’s trainer’s handiwork after watching his son Tyson Fury nearly get knocked out in October by a boxing debutant.

John Fury, a former boxer, named his son after Mike Tyson, the legendary ex-boxer who trained boxing debutant and former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou ahead of the bout.

Francis Ngannou surprised nearly everyone by knocking the champion down during the third round of the ten-round bout, and he fought well with him through the remaining rounds while landing the most troubling blows of the match. Tyson Fury won by a split decision but was considered not fit to meet lineal heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk in the ring for the undisputeed bout in December as planned due to injuries he sustained.

Speaking to Metro, John Fury said, ‘He [Tyson Fury] would have been better boxing off the back foot, slipping and sliding. Against the old Tyson, Ngannou wouldn’t have landed a glove on him.

‘The style I am seeing is no good, it won’t be any use boxing Usyk like that, just stood in front of him. You have to be clever and agile, as much as he [Usyk] is. But unless you are trained to do that, what can you say?’

Though many think Oleksandr Usyk could be more positioned to beat the WBC heavyweight champion now, some high-profile individuals, like Matchroom Promotion’s Eddie Hearn, disagree.

‘I think Tyson Fury, Look, there are a lot of signs that he might be in decline after the Ngannou fight,’ discussed Hearn. ‘But if he is back to his best, if he is firing on all cylinders, I do expect him to win that fight.’

In the wake of what many consider an unsightly showdown of a boxing match, John Fury announced that the last three professional fights his son featured in had been unsatisfactory to him.

‘For my money, his last three fights, I have seen a bit of decline,’ revealed John Fury. ‘Not a decline in ability but a decline in strength, power and physical condition. I don’t know what they are doing up there, you have to address it. He didn’t look himself out in Saudi.’

It is clear the champion’s father likely preferred a change of coaching personnel for his son ahead of the undisputed world heavyweight championship fight that is scheduled to happen on February 17, but is not among his son’s crew.

‘The 17th February is the date they have got to work towards,’ suggested John Fury. ‘But in my opinion, Tyson needs a bit more time to get his conditioning right and his weight right. For me, it looked like he had lost 20lbs of muscle last time. Something was wrong.’

It was not only John Fury who thought something was wrong. A lot of people did.