Oleksandr Usyk insists Tyson Fury is looking ‘skinny’ ahead of their Saudi Arabia showdown.

The Brit has always carried a bit of extra timber around his midriff but ahead of his four-belt shootout with Usyk on Saturday, he is looking very trim.

Pictures uploaded to his social media earlier this week showed Fury with abs while his father, John Fury, has claimed that his son is coming in at a career-lightest weight.

As Fury made his way to the stage at the Grand Arrivals on Tuesday, Usyk, who was watching his adversary make the walk from the balcony above, could be heard saying: “He looks skinny.”

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Meanwhile, the Ukrainian’s promoter, Alexander Krassyuk, remarked: “He looks skinny so who is the middleweight now?

“That’s because he is nervous, when you get nervous you lose weight or gain weight like his mother.”

However, ‘The Gypsy King’ claims his weight isn’t any lower than usual.

“I’ll tell you my weight. I’m about 19 stone (266lbs). I’m 19 stone around about,” he told DAZN.

“I’m in good shape I’ve had two or three camps back to back.

“People say I’m looking skinny but I’ve weighed the same on my scales for the last ten years.”

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In recent years, Fury’s fight weight has fluctuated between the mid 260lbs mark and 277lbs.

Meanwhile, last time out he tipped the scales at a career-heaviest 277.7lbs for his crossover clash with Francis Ngannou.

But if Fury’s estimates are correct then he will be around the same weight for his next contest as he was for his previous two outings against Dillian Whyte and Derek Chisora in 2022.

“It’s difficult to know what is going to happen on Saturday night,” Fury said when asked about his expectations for fight night.

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“I believe in fate, I believe in destiny and I’ve come along way. I was watching a video of myself when I was 28 stone sparring and I was thinking ‘I am a bad man’.

“I was 30 stone nearly and come from that and become the heavyweight champion of the world again, it has been an amazing journey and I look forward to the next chapter.”

One of the most anticipated bouts in recent years is just a week away, when two giants of the ring meet face-to-face.

Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk will battle for the undisputed heavyweight champion next Saturday, May 18 at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, after a three-month delay from the original February 17 fight date.

Fury, who has an impressive record of 34-0-1 and 24 KOs, had to postpone the fight due to a cut on the eyebrow he suffered after a blow from one of his sparring partners. While it delayed the fight, it also increased the anticipation for the fight between two great giants of world boxing today.

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Usyk’s record is no less than 21 wins in 21 fights with 14 knockout victories, and he will try to impose on Fury his first defeat in the professional arena.

The winner of the fight will make history by becoming the first undisputed heavyweight champion in the four-belt era, making a long-awaited bout even more appealing.

Usyk comes into the fight as WBA, WBO and IBF champion, while Fury is the holder of the WBC world championship belt.

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The contract for the fight includes a clause with the possibility of a rematch, something that makes the fight even more interesting.

Ahead of fighting for the right to be crowned undisputed heavyweight champion, WBC title holder Tyson Fury reflects on his journey to the top of boxing; watch Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk live on Sky Sports Box Office on Saturday, May 18

At 20-years-old, Tyson Fury had already declared his intention to be world champion. Now, 16 years on, he has the opportunity to do something no heavyweight has achieved for a quarter of a century.

The WBC heavyweight title holder faces WBA, WBO and IBF unified king Oleksandr Usyk in Riyadh on Saturday May 18, live on Sky Sports Box Office, in a bid to become the first undisputed champion in boxing’s blue-ribband division since Lennox Lewis beat Evander Holyfield in 1999.

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Watching back a video of himself talking about those ambitions at a time when he had barely a handful of professional fights under his belt, Fury is in no doubt what he would tell his younger self as he stands on the verge of making boxing history.

“What would I say? I think I had it all figured out, didn’t I?” Fury told Sky Sports. “You’re going to be world champion, yes.

“I can be world champion, be No 1 in the world, be the best and prove it – a young kid, a long time ago. I’m 36 this year so that was 16 years ago.

“I always believed, even when other people didn’t, that I would be a star and make millions of dollars from fights.

Oleksandr Usyk is taking inspiration from boxing great Muhammad Ali, with the Ukrainian paying tribute to ‘the Greatest’ as he faces Tyson Fury in just a week in a fight billed as the ‘Ring of Fire’, The pair will clash in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on May 18 live on TNT Sports Box Office. Usyk’s WBA, WBO, IBF and Ring Magazine titles, and Fury’s WBC title, will all be on the line.

The Ukrainian, who shares his birthday with the late boxing great, has previously called Ali his “ favourite athlete” and is drawing motivation from ‘the Greatest’ as a date with Fury in Riyadh next Saturday looms.

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Oleksandr Usyk discusses his undisputed heavyweight title showdown against Tyson Fury in an exclusive interview with TNT Sports. The Ukrainian has suggested Fury’s injury – which postponed an initial February date for the fight – was genuine. Usyk also claims he feels as good as he did 12 years ago, when he won gold at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The undisputed heavyweight title showdown – live on TNT Sports Box Office on May 18 – has been a long time in the making. The pair have been on a collision course since the autumn of 2022, with a series of failed talks finally seeing a resolution in the last six months.

“It has to happen because we have a contract. It’s a problem only for Tyson Fury. Tyson Fury signed a contract, so he has to fight.”

The victor next Saturday will be crowned the first undisputed heavyweight champion in a quarter of a century, while Usyk is eyeing more history as he aims to hold all four major belts in two divisions, having also cleaned up at cruiserweight. Terence Crawford and Naoya Inoue are the only two men to have achieved this feat, down at lighter weights.

It would cap off a remarkable career for the Ukrainian, whose amateur days saw him win a gold medal at the London Olympics 12 years ago. That was at heavyweight, at the same Games in which Joshua scooped the top prize at super-heavyweight.

Usyk still feels as sprightly as he did at 25. He continued: “I feel incredible, as good as I did at the 2012 Olympic Games. Just as young and energetic, with a big desire to move forward.

“It’s the most important fight of my career, my sports career and my sporting life. I want to say that my victory is the victory of the entire Ukrainian people, and defeat is personal. It has been an incredible journey. I can do anything now.”

Usyk, now 37, has fought just once since the Joshua rematch, in which he displayed an engine in the late rounds like never before. That victory – No. 21 in the pros overall – came against Daniel Dubois in August of last year, via a ninth-round knockout in Poland.

Tyson Fury‘s reported purse for his undisputed heavyweight bout against Oleksandr Usyk this month has been revealed.

The Gypsy King will face off against Usyk on May 18 in Riyadh in a bid to become the first unified heavyweight world champion in 24 years.

While Usyk is the IBF, WBO, and IBO title holder, Fury is the incumbent WBC

With both fighters still unbeaten after immense professional careers it is no surprise that the finances involved are jaw-dropping.

Fury is reportedly contracted to earn 70 per cent of the the total purse, according to The Independent.

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And that purse is bulging at a value of £116million, meaning Fury is due to take home £81.2m.

He’ll need a creative mind to work out how to spend that sum – perhaps he could refund most of the transfer fee his beloved Manchester United paid for Antony in 2022

However, he will have to donate £1m of his earnings to Ukraine, Usyk’s homeland, amid the invasion of Russia.

That requirement is stiuplated in his fight contract.

The unification fight was originally scheduled for February 17 but was postponed after Fury suffered a nasty gash above his eye while sparring, requiring 15 stitches.

Fury has undergone a massive transformation as he trains for the titanic bout against Usyk, 37.

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His strength and conditioning coach Kristian Blacklock said Fury was in the best shape of his life ahead of the Usyk fight – claiming he was ‘stronger and leaner’ than ever before.

The Gypsy King looked considerably leaner than when he fought against former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou in October 2023.

Fury – who told Mail Sport he would always be fat during an interview ahead of the Francis Ngannou fight last year – could be seen tensing his abs in the mirror selfie.

Carl Froch, however, thinks a ‘nutritionist needs to step in’ after seeing his significant weight loss.

But the trimmed-down Wythenshawe star recently insulted Usyk by claiming he could still beat him if he weighed 25 stone and drank 15 pints of Peroni beforehand.

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Fury gloated: ‘I think if I didn’t train at all for this camp, I just come in at 25 stone and sank maybe 15 pints of Peroni beforehand, then the next day, going there, what’s he gonna do? Do you even jab me around?

‘Take nothing away from him, but he couldn’t do anything with Derek Chisora.

‘We all saw that fight and let’s not be deluded with it, it was a 50-50 fight, it could have gone either way!