Veteran trainer Don Charles is very familiar with WBO, IBF, IBO, WBA heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk.
Charles trained Chisora for his decision loss to Usyk in 2020. Chisora gave Usyk one of the toughest fights of his career.
And last year, Charles prepared Daniel Dubois for his mandatory title fight against Usyk in Poland.
Earlier in the fight, Usyk went down from what was ruled as a low blow by the referee, but some observers felt Dubois had landed a legal shot to the body. Usyk would recover and eventually knock Dubois out in the ninth round.
On February 17 in Saudi Arabia, Usyk will collide with WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in a high-stakes unification – with the winner become the undisputed beltholder of the weight class.
Charles believes Fury will be too big and too strong, with those attributes being enough to overcome Usyk’s advantage in hand speed and boxing ability.
“This Fury who has gone silent, I believe he’s gone silent, he’s gone away to train, he’s taking it seriously. Forgive me if I get this wrong, but I don’t even think it will be a hard fight for Fury. He’ll maul him, he’s too big for Usyk, he’ll maul him, hit him, tie him up, push him off, he’ll maul him,” Charles told Talk Sport.
“I’ve looked at this fight and no matter how I look at it I come to one conclusion. Yes, Usyk is an exceptional, brilliant technician/tactician. Usyk has a fantastic rhythm that can offset Fury. [He needs to throw] lots of feints, shoot to the body, leave the head alone. Throw all your combinations to the waist, don’t go up, leave Fury’s head alone, that’s what I would advise.”
