Ricky Hatton: Fury Shouldn’t Let Smaller Usyk Bully Him

Ricky Hatton believes Tyson Fury should use his size in his rematch with the smaller unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk on December 21st.

The former two-division world champion Hatton feels that Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) shouldn’t allow Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) to push him around as he did in their fight earlier this year to defeat him on May 18th.

What Hatton may have noticed was how Usyk was shoving Fury away when he would attempt to grab him in a clinch and lean on him. Fury couldn’t hold Usyk as he had in his fights against Deontay Wilder.

This mauling tactic that Fury learned from his trainer Sugarhill Steward had become his bread and butter strategy to wear down his opponents since he teamed up with him. Against Usyk, Fury couldn’t hold because he was getting shoved hard when he tried to clinch.

In hindsight, Fury’s loss to Usyk was a result of these factors:

• Weak chin
• Showboating early on
• Poor conditioning
• Fighting off the ropes
• Age
• Years of fighting marginal competition
• Being overrated

“I think Fury can make changes. If he uses his height, which he didn’t use last time. If he uses his weight, which he didn’t use last time. If he uses his reach, which he didn’t use last time, I think he shouldn’t have someone as small as Usyk pushing him around the ring,” said Ricky Hatton to Pro Boxing Fans when asked if Tyson Fury could make adjustments to win rematch with Oleksandr Usyk on December 21st. “Also, one voice in the corner.”

For the rematch on December 21st, Fury needs a better strategy than trying to hold and maul because that tactic has already failed once. It was a nice simplistic tactic that worked against Wilder, but only because he was never a world-class fighter to begin with.

Sugarhill and the rest of Fury’s team should have come up with a game other than mauling against Usyk last May. If that’s all they have for Fury in the rematch, he’ll lose again.