Oleksandr Usyk refused to express any irritation with Tyson Fury, despite their undisputed heavyweight championship fight being postponed at short notice.
Fury vs Usyk is a bout of historic proportions, as it will decide the first undisputed heavyweight champion of the four-belt era, also the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis more than 20 years ago.
But with little more than a fortnight left before the fight was due to take place, Fury had to withdraw due to a cut sustained in sparring.
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Tyson Fury has suffered a cut in sparring which has forced his undisputed heavyweight clash with Oleksandr Usyk to be postponed
Usyk, the unified WBO, WBA and IBF heavyweight champion, was philosophical about the delay. In fact, he said he “loved” Tyson Fury more.
“Of course, more,” Usyk said of the WBC champion.
“Why? Because it’s the man who has my fourth belt. It’s the man who helped me become famous a lot. Because we, all people, must love friends, [people who are] not friends, acquaintances, all people.
“It’s great when you are polite, not dirty.”
The cancellation caused consternation across the sport, but Usyk insisted: “I didn’t even have any irritation inside. No frustration.
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Tyson Fury goaded Oleksandr Usyk in a message to his fans as he confirmed his undisputed fight with the Ukrainian has been rescheduled for May 18
“I just looked back at all the work I’ve done – getting up early, jogging, swimming, sparring, the amount of all it, and I thought to myself: ‘Wow, that’s some good work I did.’
“Then I thought of how much more training I will do and how much good work I will do.
“So when, with God’s help, I will finish all this work, I’ll be able to box three Tyson Furys.
“We can do it simultaneously or one by one on Saturday, Sunday, and then Monday.”
A new date of May 18 has been set for the fight, so the delay will not be as long as feared at first.
Usyk, however, did not speculate on the nature of Fury’s injury.
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Matthew Macklin and Johnny Nelson gave their reaction after it was revealed the undisputed heavyweight clash between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk will be shown live on Sky Sports Box Office
“What will change if I watch a video and start shouting ‘it’s fake’ or ‘it’s not fake?’ Nothing will change. What happened – happened. Being nervous because of that means only wasting your own energy,” the Ukrainian said.
He did though question Fury himself.
“It depends on his attitude. Is it serious or not? Does he want to box or not?” Usyk said.
“He says he wants to become an undisputed [champion] but he doesn’t take some of his training seriously enough.
“In general, I don’t want to judge Tyson Fury, I’m just trying to say that it happens sometimes – what people plan, sometimes, doesn’t correlate with our Lord’s plans.
“He simply changes people’s plans, for better. And us, we don’t understand it, we cannot accept it, we get nervous, hurry, shout, scream.
“But all we need to do is to look at the skies, look around us, count till 10, breathe out, and say: ‘Thank God, I’m calm.’ Peace to everyone.”