Moments ago today in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, rival heavyweights Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury came face again ahead of Saturday’s huge DAZN PPV rematch. The two said very little at the presser – Usyk gave his customary “don’t be afraid, I will not leave you alone” bit, while Fury promised maximum violence – but then came the stare-down. One of the most agonizingly long and tense ever seen.
The two men approached each other in the customary manner, but this stare-down was different. Neither guy blinked as they fixed a piercing gaze on one another. Heck, neither man seemed to be breathing. It went on and on. It was weird to watch, and it was even disturbing.
Finally, after around nine or ten minutes (as pundit Steve Bunce said on air, he wished he’d run a clock over the crazy stare-down), WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman got between the two men, but even then, neither Usyk nor Fury would walk away, would avert their gaze. Then Fury began talking, but the audio was not able to pick up what the former heavyweight champ was saying. But it was clearly violence-related, and Usyk gave back as good as he got. Then, “pathetically,” as one fan wrote on the sidebar comments feature of the YouTube coverage of today’s presser, the signal was lost, and we never got to see Usyk and Fury walk away. You couldn’t make it up; billions of $ to make these fight cards, yet we get amateur-hour internet coverage of the presser!
The long history of stare-downs in boxing has given us some rough ones, with a major need for security. Today’s stare-down must rank as one of the longest and iciest ever seen! Whether or not what happened today will have any effect on what happens in the ring on Saturday, we must wait and see.
But there was no playing today, no hype, no circus show. It was real, it was intense, and it’s clear Usyk and Fury are ready to go. Fury, especially, has never looked so fixated on an opponent. Judging by today’s, let’s say it again, icily intense stare-down; we can expect both men to give absolutely everything they have in an effort at winning.
Have you changed your mind on who wins as many times as some of us have? It’s a tough one to choose, but the pick here remains Usyk—just about.
