Top heavyweight contender Zhilei Zhang does not view Tyson Fury as a big favorite in the upcoming undisputed showdown with Oleksandr Usyk.
Fury and Usyk will collide on February 17 in Saudi Arabia, with the IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO, WBC world titles at stake.
Last month, Fury barely overcame a crossover boxing match with MMA veteran Francis Ngannou, who was making his professional debut.
Fury was dropped in the third round and had trouble with Ngannou’s style. After ten rounds, Fury walked away with a razor-close ten round split decision.
Zhang is not overly fixated on Fury’s struggles in that fight.
What bothers him most is Fury’s claim that he trained very hard to prepare for Ngannou.
If Fury actually trained as hard as he claims, then Zhang expects him to have a lot of problems when he steps in the ring with Usyk.
“I think it is simple, Fury didn’t train for this fight [against Ngannou],” Zhang told Metro.co.uk. “To be honest with you, he is not the version we are used to seeing.
“I can see his mindset is not in boxing at the moment, he is doing commercial things, he is doing PR, marketing, different things, but not boxing. And in this business, you can’t really fool yourself. You can’t fool training.
“After the fight [against Ngannou] in his press conference and interviews he said he had a good training camp for that fight. If that is the case, he has a very big problem going into the Usyk fight.”
Zhang, who is currently the WBO’s mandatory challenger, would like to see Fury come out on top so they can finally go through with their fight.
Earlier this year, Fury and Zhang were close to a deal – but their discussions fell apart when Joe Joyce exercised an immediate rematch clause to force a second meeting with Zhang.
The Chinese giant believes his power will do a lot of damage on Fury.
“If you look at his career, he’s got hit, he’s got dropped, and my punches are not a joke,” Zhang told the Town Bizznizz sports and ent YouTube channel.
“When my punches land, it’s going to be a disaster for him.”
