Nelson: "This Irritates Fury"

On May 18th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a fight for the undisputed world heavyweight (over 90,7 kg) title will take place between the holder of the WBA, WBO, IBF, and IBO titles, Oleksandr Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs), and WBC champion Tyson Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs).

In a column for Sky Sports, former champion and boxing analyst Johnny Nelson shared his thoughts on the upcoming fight, as well as analyzing the psychological games between the two fighters.

"Tyson Fury plays the fool to catch smart fighters, like he did with Wladimir Klitschko. Klitschko didn’t respect him, considered him an idiot, a clown.

He gets in their face, mocks them, insults them to get them angry and not use their brains. Or he uses the buddy effect, as if he's befriended them, and then knocks out his opponent. We saw this when he boxed with Whyte. Dillian was full of passion, and then they were laughing, joking, and dancing; it wasn’t the usual Whyte.

With Usyk, the problem is the language barrier, so it's very hard for Tyson to intimidate Alexander. When they met face-to-face, he tried to use physical power, and Usyk, to his credit, remained calm and didn’t respond. Even if Usyk understands him – he pretends to be ignorant, as if he can’t understand, and this irritates Tyson because he needs an edge.

He needs to gain an advantage over his opponent, and that's something that has worked throughout his career, he's brilliant at it. I think both of them could win by knockout, undoubtedly. With each fight at heavyweight, Usyk becomes more comfortable," Nelson wrote.