Former super middleweight champion Carl Froch had initially pegged Tyson Fury to overcome Oleksandr Usyk in their upcoming undisputed heavyweight showdown.
The fight takes place on February 17th in Saudi Arabia.
Initially, Froch expected Fury’s size advantage to propel him to a close decision win.
However, that prediction has now changed – after Fury struggled to defeat former UFC champion Francis Ngannou back in October, in a non-title crossover boxing match.
Ngannou, who was making his pro debut in boxing, was a significant underdog – but he fought Fury on even terms for the majority of the fight. The entire perception of the contest changed in the third, when Fury was shockingly knocked down.
Fury was able to walk away with a razor-close split decision victory.
Froch is concerned with Fury’s mental state and his current dedication to training hard and staying in proper shape.
“I’m picking Usyk for that one, just because of where Tyson Fury is mentally. Hopefully Fury can have a good camp and rekindle some of his old greatness in terms of when he fought Deontay Wilder three times,” Froch told Talk Sport.
“He looked good, he looked different every time. I don’t know, that’s gone now. He struggles to get the weight off him. He seems under-motivated. When he fought Ngannou he looked confused. Has he got old overnight? Hopefully he turns up and gets the job done, because I want those titles to return to Britain, but at the minute I think Usyk wins that fight.”
Back in August, Usyk traveled to Poland and retained the WBO, IBF, IBO, WBA heavyweight titles with a knockout win over mandatory challenger Daniel Dubois.