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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Harry Davies

Tyson Fury warned fighting Oleksandr Usyk could be a "12-round disaster"

Tyson Fury has been warned his inactivity from boxing could lead to a '12-round disaster' against Oleksandr Usyk.

Fury, 34, hasn't fought since stopping familiar for Derek Chisora in their heavily-questioned trilogy fight last December. 'The Gypsy King' was supposed to face fellow heavyweight champion Usyk in an undisputed clash at the end of April, but the two parties disagreed over a rematch clause in the contracts which eventually saw the fight scrapped.

The Brit has been teasing a big announcement in recent weeks but he is yet to decide on an opponent of any sort. Fury is expected to take a fight in late summer before facing Usyk in Saudi Arabia at the end of the year and British boxing legend Carl Froch thinks Fury could be setting himself up for failure if he isn't training seriously at the moment.

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"If he gets too out of shape and he's out of the ring for too long, it gets past the point of no return and all of a sudden he's gonna find himself in a hard fight against somebody who's bang average. I think Fury would be too big for Usyk, but it's gotta be an on-point Fury, it's gotta be a Fury that's 100 per cent on his game and fit for 12 rounds," Froch told talkSPORT.

"He's going to have to be fit for 12 rounds because if Usyk decides to stay out of range and box and not engage, just jab his stomach and jab his arms and jab his chest, then take what he can when he's in range - that could be a 12-round disaster for Tyson Fury. I'm not so sure he jumps straight with him and that may be the reason why he priced himself out of it, because I think he did price himself out."

Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk are expected to fight in December (Top Rank via Getty Images)

Usyk is scheduled to face mandatory WBA challenger Daniel Dubois on August 26 and the Ukrainian also recently signed with Saudi Arabian promotion Skills Challenge in the hopes of moving closer to a fight against 'The Gypsy King'. Froch has questioned whether Fury is serious about the undisputed fight as a deal is yet to be made.

"He's talking a good one at the minute and he's talking up all these fights, but nothing's happening. How serious is he about fighting Oleksandr Usyk? He's making all the noise, but there's nothing getting signed. It's getting frustrating now, it's getting annoying listening to Tyson Fury because we all wanna see Tyson Fury fight and I'm not so sure how serious he is now about fighting," he added.

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