"No punching power": Russia predicted Usyk's overthrow from the championship throne after defeating Fury

Russian boxing coach Vitaly Slanov has questioned the future prospects of the new absolute world heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs). The mentor of Murat Gassiev (30-2-0-1, 23 KOs), whom the Ukrainian declared in 2018, said that our compatriot allegedly has no punching power.

Slanov said this in an interview with Championat.com. The expert added that Usyk's career is in its final stages and he will soon begin to lose to younger opponents. In particular, the Russian expressed his support for Croatian heavyweight Filip Hrgovic (17-0, 14 KOs).

"Usyk is getting older with every fight. I think that soon his speed and timing may disappear. And then the younger guys will have the advantage. Usyk has practically no punching power. And Hrgovic is in his prime. He has a chance to make some noise." . But there are a lot of interesting fights in the division," Slanov said.

It should be noted that before Usyk's fight with Tyson Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs), Gassiev's coach accused Usyk of manipulating the judges. He also predicted that the fight between the Ukrainian and the Briton would be boring.

Earlier, former world champion Carl Froch named the main culprit behind Tyson's defeat of Oleksandr. In addition, he expressed confidence that Usyk should end his career. And Fury's team called for the Ukrainian to be stripped of his International Boxing Federation (IBF) belt.

There were also three reasons why it is beneficial for promoters and organizations to leave all the belts to the Ukrainian. At the same time, our boxer's team will ask the IBF to make an exception for mandatory defense.

Fury has officially activated the rematch clause with Usyk. Bookmakers have already started accepting bets on the fight. They also disclosed the agreement under which the Ukrainian will lose the title of absolute champion.

Former boxer David Haye predicted that there will be no rematch between the Ukrainian and Fury. His compatriot Dereck Chisora started rumors that Oleksandr would return to the heavyweight division.

As OBOZ.UA previously reported, Tyson Fury received a strange disqualification after his defeat by Oleksandr Usyk. The fate of the Ukrainian after winning the fight on May 18 was also announced.

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