TYSON FURY announced his fight with Francis Ngannou at a central London nightclub. At the press conference, Fury also criticized Oleksandr Usyk, calling him a “little quitting pussy”.
The WBC heavyweight champion chose to face Ngannou after negotiations with Usyk for a rematch fell through due to a disagreement over purse split. Usyk went on to fight Daniel Dubois in Poland and won via ninth round TKO, although there was controversy in the fifth round when he was knocked down. Promoter Frank Warren has appealed to the WBA to reinstate Dubois as the mandatory challenger.
Like Warren, Fury believes Usyk should have lost the fight and called him a quitter. Fury stated, “If you quit once, you will always quit, just like we saw with Dubois. He quit too, so that was two quitters fighting each other.”
Fury added, “It is what it is, you’re a fighting man or you’re not and if you quit once, you will always quit again. My father taught me that when I was a child. If you spew it once, you’ll always spew it and that’s the facts of the matter. End of.”
Despite his comments, Fury is open to rekindling talks with Usyk, but he doesn’t sound hopeful about the potential purse split. Fury said, “If Usyk is a good little boy… he will get a fight.”
Fury also explained that he turned to a boxing debutant, Ngannou, for the fight because of the lack of willing challengers in his own sport. He criticized other boxers for not stepping up to fight him and called them “little shithouse pussies”.
Fury concluded, “It has taken a guy from MMA to come and challenge me, step up to the plate when no other actual so-called boxer will step up to it. Full credit to Ngannou, he’s obviously a brave man.”