Andy Lee rubbishes Tyson Fury v Oleksandr Usyk rumours
Andy Lee has rubbished suggestions Tyson Fury did all he could avoid fighting Oleksandr Usyk.
The former middleweight champion of the world assures the WBC heavyweight title holder not only wanted to fight but was training ‘like an animal’ in preparation for an undisputed clash.
The fighters’ teams were in deep negotiations for months, attempting to make a WBC, IBF, WBO and WBC world heavyweight title fight for April 29 at Wembley Stadium in London.
However, even after Usyk shocked a lot of people by accepting a 70-30 monetary split in Fury’s favour, talks crumbled and the pair look set for separate title fights this summer.
Usyk has been vocal about his frustration at the entire process dragging on and questioned whether stumbling blocks were deliberately put in place so a deal wouldn’t be reached.
Speaking to Irish-boxing.com, the respected Limerick coach was adamant Fury was keen and claims he pushed for the fight to happen.
Indeed, he said the former Irish heavyweight champion had got Usyk-specific sparring in and was training with the Ukranian and April in mind.
“Sometimes I feel like speaking up but… Tyson wanted the fight,” he said.
“He was ready to fight, he was in training, he rang me to get Thomas Carty’s number. You saw Thomas was there sparring and Sugar [Hill] was there training. Even though Tyson wasn’t posting stuff, he’d been training like an animal, he was ticking all the boxes.”
Lee’s desire to defend Fury was obvious but so too was his frustration and not being able to tell the whole story and the perception of the giant talent.
“What you see online is not really reflective of the man or the real person. In terms of social media, he only uses that to his advantage. The fight wasn’t getting made, all of a sudden he makes a video and the fights getting made and there are real serious talks. For whatever reason the fight isn’t happening, Tyson has told me why and it’s not for me to say why. All I can assure people is Tyson wanted the fight and he was ready for the fight.”
