It was said that TYSON FURY was unrecognizable. He was unrecognizable as he watched Francis Ngannou get knocked down by the debutant in the third round, and he was equally unrecognizable as, in a bid to get grave about Oleksandr Usyk, he posed for selfies that highlighted his rather dramatic weight loss.

Perhaps in the end one thing led to the other. Perhaps just as heartbroken people find solace in exercise after a failed relationship, Fury responded to adversity by taking extreme measures to change both his appearance and, by extension, his future.

Time will tell whether this approach ultimately works or not. But Fury has seemed half the man he once was on more than one occasion lately; both in terms of form – primarily the performance with Francis Ngannou – and topless selfies, invariably taken in gyms or bathrooms, which herald a streamlined version of Fury before Saturday’s (May 18) fight with Usyk.

“I met Tyson in Arabia when Joseph (Parker) was fighting (Zhilei) Zhang and he looked in fantastic shape,” said Andy Lee, one of Fury’s trainers. “You see videos and photos on the internet and there’s proof.

The thing is, he’s well prepared for this fight. He’s been talking about this fight since Usyk first beat (Anthony) Joshua (in 2021). He is a unique character. I remember one Wednesday afternoon he came into the gym and it was just me and him and he went on an hour-long tirade about how he was going to take Usyk down and how he was going to deal with it. There was so much passion in his voice. “I’ll hit him with this shot… I’ll do this… I’ll do that… How will he get in front of me?” he would ask. “I’ll just put this jab out there and control him with it.” I had to tell him, “Listen, Tyson, it’s just you and me here.” But that’s the point: it wasn’t a performance. He cares about this fight and I think you will definitely see the best in him.”

In terms of form, only when the first bell rings and the fight begins will we see either the best or the worst Fury. However, if we are talking about physical conditioning, we should have good indications long before the first bell and long before Usyk tries to further reduce Fury’s size with left and right hands. Given the scales, we know it was all a ruse, a trick of the mind, blind hope; whereas if Fury came in lighter than usual, the assumption would be that he trained harder than ever for this fight, and furthermore sees Usyk as a smaller man and believes that the key to beating him is his ability to match him in terms of both speed, as well as mobility.

“I don’t know if losing weight always helps,” Lee said, playing devil’s advocate. “Look, it will assist him with his movement on his feet and his footwork in general, but as far as his hand speed, I don’t know if that’s going to change. I’m not a fan of this theory that you have to lose weight because you’re fighting a smaller guy. Joe Joyce lost weight for the Zhang fight, but was stopped and had a bad night. But then he gained weight for the rematch and was still defeated, this time more decisively.

“I think the key is just to fight at your natural weight. There is no weight limit for heavyweight fighters, so you have the luxury of setting your best weight and always fighting at and around that weight. Tyson will know that weight and I’m sure it will be close to his current weight.”

Regardless of his official weight, Fury will boast a clear physical advantage over Usyk when the two fighters meet this weekend in Riyad, Saudi Arabia. First, he will boast a five-inch height advantage and a seven-inch reach advantage. He will also, if previous weights are anything to go by, naturally be the heavier of the two – Usyk weighed 221 pounds last time out and Fury weighed 277 pounds.

That said, a heavyweight fight is often about more than just the numbers and what you see on tape. Indeed, when facing someone like Usyk, the former cruiserweight king, every opponent knows that what he may lack in current heavyweight size, he more than makes up for in acumen, stamina and quickness of hands, feet and thinking.

Even those who have only observed Usyk from the outside, like Lee, can see exactly what it is about the Ukrainian that makes him such a arduous puzzle to solve. “Tyson will tell you this isn’t his toughest fight,” Lee said. “He will say that (Deontay) Wilder at the time was his toughest and most hazardous fight. But Usyk is very, very clever and, like all those great amateurs from Eastern Europe, there is no second-guessing with them. There is a method behind everything they do: when they deceive, how they move, how they organize everything and what they show you. They are very, very clever fighters.

“But Tyson too. When he’s in the ring, he’s a real thinking fighter; he makes things up as he goes along. I talked to Sugar Hill (Fury’s other coach) about it and he told me, “I just have to flip the switch because last camp we got to the point where we had everything ready to beat Usyk.” and it all came together and now Tyson has all these things in him. So he has to go right back to it and pick up where we almost left off.

“It’s a arduous fight, we know that because Usyk is not that tiny. He’s six feet four and he’s already grown. He’s also a great amateur and hits as challenging as any of them in my opinion. What sets Usyk apart from Tyson’s other opponents is his self-belief. Technicalities and all, what really matters is what’s inside a man when he enters a fight. What do they think? How do they feel? Do they believe in what they are doing? You saw in the second fight with Joshua, when Joshua had one great round, after that Usyk just sat on a stool, talked to himself in the corner, and then he got up, blessed himself and boxed even better in the ring. Next round. He never lost a single round after that. This is a great challenge for Tyson. Tyson has always had an advantage over everyone else when it comes to mental strength. He was able to intimidate them and get into their heads both before and during the fight. It becomes a much bigger challenge in this fight and with someone like Usyk.”

Although it may sound strange, it can be argued that preparing for the fight against Oleksandr Usyk on May 18 was easier for Team Fury than preparing for the fight against Fury’s previous opponent, Francis Ngannou, which will take place on October 28. At least in Usyk’s case, you see, despite all the Ukrainians’ tricks, you know what you’re getting; it means you know you are dealing with a customary boxer in a customary boxing match whose boxing history is available for the world to see on video. Ngannou, on the other hand, although not in the physical sense, was a much more elusive thing. He was alternately a circus performer and the strongest man in the world. He was both a mixed martial arts fighter and a professional boxer. He was a fall guy and a tough guy. It was huge, but at the same time hidden.

“The preparation for this was weird,” Lee admitted. “I remember one day at camp we were having a conversation and I said, ‘This guy is hungry. I was just reading his story and reading about how he came from nothing and lived homeless before eventually becoming UFC champion. These boys.’ Tyson just said, “Yes, I know.” I’m doing everything I can. It’s not that I’m cutting corners or not taking it seriously. And I said, “Yes, you’re right.”

“But mentally it’s different because you’re playing against a guy who has never boxed professionally. Naturally, you don’t have the same level of threat there. Also, although it has been said that Ngannou has never boxed, the truth is that he has been boxing for a long time. Joseph (Parker) remembers seeing him at a Vegas boxing gym in 2018, so he’s been boxing for a long time.

“He was very careful with Tyson in the fight itself and it was good for him. In the match against Anthony Joshua (in March) he was more ambitious and it was good for him.

Ngannou knocked down Fury (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

For Fury, what began as a game of dough on a state-of-the-art Saudi playground soon turned into the most vital and potentially humiliating fight of his otherwise illustrious professional career. Moreover, the outcome of this fight was so shocking that many people reviewing this weekend’s clash with Usyk are now unable to support Fury with the same conviction, which is a reality that Lee, and probably Fury, accepts.

“He won the fight, but because of the performance, I didn’t feel like he won,” Lee said. “I had no doubt that he deserved to win that fight, but he didn’t win it in the style he was supposed to.

“But Tyson can be like that. He can have bad performances when there is no such threat and fear. I probably got too comfortable because I didn’t think much of Ngannou after seeing him on the pads. I saw this and thought: .

“In addition, Tyson had a press conference and weigh-in during fight week and after both fights. He stayed up slow both nights and entered the ring to fight Ngannou until 3 a.m. that night. All this plays a role. Maybe he wasn’t underestimating him, but any other thing he would have done if he had fought Usyk.

In other words, whether it’s fitness, focus or performance, shape-shifting Tyson Fury will once again be unrecognizable on Saturday night.

FOR most of us, the prospect of looking in the mirror and seeing a distorted version of ourselves would be reason enough to look away, cry, or never again do what caused that distortion.

However, in the case of boxers, both the level of shock and the overall reaction are significantly different. Take for example someone like Fabio Wardley, the British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion. Unrecognizable after his 12-round war with Frazer Clark in tardy March, Wardley recognized the contours of his up-to-date face immediately after the fight by staring into the bathroom mirror, and at that moment he was strangely amused by its discovery. There were various markings around the eyes, nose, forehead, and mouth, up-to-date to Wardley, each a reminder of a recent and arduous trip, and yet only the pain of these souvenirs interrupted what had been one huge joke to him.

“They were damn painful,” he said of the injuries. “I felt like I had been hit by a train. In fact, it was just overwhelming pain. Every bone and every muscle you can think of will hurt. You got up and it hurt; you sat down and it hurt; you rolled over in bed and it hurt; you woke up in the morning and it hurt. This went on for a good week, just pure pain and whatever.

“But it was also fun. Maybe I’m a little crazy, but I kept laughing at this. I was almost proud of myself for bearing battle scars. I looked at myself in the mirror and saw my entire swollen face, and I giggled and thought, I wouldn’t say it was a pat on the back, but more of a slight nod or lift of my head as if to say, “Yes, you put it all on the line that night.” You did great.

“Whether it was a tumor or something else, I looked at those little memories of getting hit in the head and thought of them as great memories.”

This is the nature of combat, this very personal battle between men and women, the memories of its participants will always be different from ours; those granted the luxury of watching from beyond the ropes. For Wardley and Clarke, the memories of their fate will be much deeper and more resonant, carrying with them a meaning and feeling that the rest of us will never understand. They will probably be stuck in those memories too. They will undoubtedly follow both boxers for the rest of their careers, a constant reminder of where they have been, what they have been through and what they have done to themselves.

“First of all, I was really proud of this opportunity and the event it became and the reach it got and the viewer base it had,” Wardley said. “I really felt like we were proud of both the event and the belt in terms of the fight itself and how it went. Since then, many people have stopped me and said that the fight was one of the best they had seen in a long time.

“Don’t get me wrong, winning titles and being a champion is great, but for me to be known as a true fighter and someone who is willing to put everything on the line and give it all up is something that really makes me proud. So these comments from other people carry a lot more weight than some of the others I may have received.”

Wardley continued: “I watched it (the fight) once before, quite by accident, and didn’t pay much attention to it. Me and the team are going to set a time to really sit down and properly evaluate it, but for now I’m leaving it a little open in my head in terms of what I think about it. I know that many mistakes were made, but there are also many positives that can be taken from it. Either way, there is still a lot of work to be done.”

Wardley and Clarke go to war (James Chance/Getty Images)

Of course, most of this work will be done over time, and Wardley will be acutely aware of the importance of rest and recovery.

“I had a lot of rest and a lot of downtime,” he said. “Of course, after a fight like this, you need it. You need to take care of your body and give it time to regenerate. I’m still training in the gym, tweaking and adjusting things, so I’m still on the ball, but I’m just not crazy.

As for the future, it appears that both Wardley and Clarke, as well as their teams, have prevented a rematch from taking place after such a fascinating first fight. But remember, this is boxing; a sport in which what is right or seems natural rarely happens in reality.

“I don’t know,” Wardley replied when asked about the possibility of a rematch with Clarke. “I’ve heard rumors from them that they’re considering other options for him, so I really don’t know. We had a little disagreement with Sky the other day and he said he wanted it again, but I heard from other parties that he was actually looking at other options for his next fight. At this stage I’m not sure.

“At some point, even if it didn’t happen right away, I would feel disappointed if we didn’t go again. I told my team tonight: ‘We’re not celebrating a draw. A draw is not a win. I know I still have the belts and that’s all great, but in the end I didn’t win, so we’re not celebrating. There’s nothing to celebrate here. So yeah, I’d probably feel a little disappointed if we didn’t get even. There’s still a lot between us.”

Wardley and Clarke settle for a draw (James Chance/Getty Images)

If Clarke has options, the same can be said for Wardley, that anomaly who has somehow managed to defeat the system and assert complete control over his own fate. It’s a skill – closer to a trick – that Wardley must not only make full employ of in the future, but perhaps even teach to younger boxers when the time comes.

“At the end of the day, I still rank high in the rankings of many sanctioning bodies, I still have the belts and I still have the pole position. I’m also still a free agent, so I can go anywhere, fight anywhere, fight anyone and do anything,” he said. “I probably have the most options in the heavyweight division right now. This may be a strange statement, but in the current situation I have the most freedom of all. Yes, I have many options to consider and we are exploring all of them. We’re just playing around with ideas at the moment; nothing is set in stone or lasting.”

At this point, all he knows is that August or September would be a good time to set foot in a boxing ring again. It is not known whether this will be a second fight with Frazer Clarke, but Wardley (17-0-1 (16)) would not want to leave this fight any longer. “Ideally I would like to do three fights a year, so I would like to have enough time for that,” he said. “I only had two fights last year and I don’t really want to get into the realm of only having two fights a year. I want to be quite busy.

Then remembering that the March fight with Frazer Clarke was essentially a two-for-one deal, Wardley let out a laugh similar to the one he had been producing for the past few weeks whenever he saw his own face in the bathroom mirror. “You’re not wrong, to be straightforward,” he said. “If there was ever a year where I only fought twice, it would probably be this one.”

SOMETIMES, when watching Vasily Lomachenko in action, you can’t lend a hand but wonder if, in the end, it’s just his ambition and pressure to meet challenges that have sullied an otherwise spotless – yes, even perfect – record.

One could, of course, argue that this is simply the nature of the game or beast and that every boxer must balance risk with reward at some stage. But in the case of Lomachenko (18-3 (12)), the feeling remains that his career achievements indicate more of the pressure on him to continue to perform than, say, the brilliance he has displayed every time he steps foot in the ring boxing. . For example, a more stubborn warrior might find it easier to say “no” or look away when presented with a test. However, this was never Lomachenko’s approach; not when fighting Orlando Salido in his first world title fight in professional fight number two, or when he moved from featherweight to super-featherweight and then finally to lightweight, just to make things more engaging and give others a chance.

Now in the lightweight division, where he has been since 2018, Lomachenko is the champion again (IBF). This will come as no surprise to anyone who has ever watched Lomachenko play, but considering that he is now 36 years aged and that he has just beaten the Australian in Australia, this latest achievement of Lomachenko takes on a recent and greater meaning. Indeed, for some this represents his swan song; either his final achievement or a stepping stone to what will be his final achievement.

Beating George Kambosos, the Australian in question, was never in doubt – again, for those who know Lomachenko’s quality – but doing it the way Lomachenko did, dominating and stopping the Australian in round 11, brought to mind some of the Lomachenko’s best victories and therefore gives hope that he still has something left.

For example, the finish in round 11 was as good as Lomachenko has seen in a while, especially at lightweight. With investments made early and Kambosos already bloody and injured, Lomachenko mercilessly drove his left paw into his opponent’s body in the 11th minute, causing Kambosos to turn away from the action and kneel. Of course he would have continued to fight, such is his courage, but Kambosos was unable to defend himself or even the same spot on his body when the action resumed. As a result, Lomachenko followed him, throwing only his left hands to the body, and after the referee’s intervention, he soon rode away victorious.

Of all the things that could be taken away from tonight, the nature of the finish was the most encouraging for those who still admired Lomachenko. After all, by chasing Kambosos this way and not settling for a decision victory, Lomachenko has shown that he has both the equipment and the will to continue to impress and finish, and, yes, take risks. Trying to finish a fight, even one as one-sided as tonight’s, is always a risk, and yet Lomachenko is willing to take that risk. He may still be haunted to some extent by what happened in his previous fight, a close decision loss to Devin Haney, and he wanted to be absolutely sure this time. Perhaps Lomachenko is losing faith in the ability of judges and boxing fans to know and appreciate what they are watching.

For those who understand, there are few sights as compelling as Lomachenko in song. Few fighters, both current and past, can match his level of technical prowess, and few fighters can also boast his range of moves. In fact, few fighters can match Lomachenko in terms of weight, and to even the odds somewhat, the Ukrainian has spent his career handicapping himself and giving his opponents certain advantages (usually in terms of weight or timing). make sure his fights are at least a little bit engaging and competitive.

You see, Lomachenko is simply good. He really was that good. He has been able to beat world-class players since day one of his professional career, and one of the few questions surrounding him these days is: was/is he too good for his own good? This means that it’s demanding to imagine a player as seemingly perfect as Vasily Lomachenko not having any record (all things being equal), but 18-3 is certainly not an right reflection of perfection. Which, in turn, begs another question: was it ultimately just Lomachenko’s innate need to entertain and test himself that caused him to suffer setbacks and sometimes bite off more than he could chew?

Probably. Either way, it is the desire to entertain and test yourself that makes Vasily Lomachenko a player who is so simple not only to watch, but also to admire.