UFC legends Alexander Volkanovski and Michael Bisping offered fans remarkably similar breakdowns of Fury vs Usyk yet were divided in their final picks.
This weekend’s enormous boxing clash between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk has decidedly split the MMA community, including two legendary UFC fighters who certainly know a thing or two about becoming undisputed champions.
Whilst both Michael Bisping and Alexander Volkanovski touched on many of the same points in their respective breakdowns of the heavyweight fight, they ultimately came to very different predictions on who they think will emerge victorious on Saturday evening.
Michael Bisping is siding with Oleksandr Usyk to get the underdog win
Despite being the significantly smaller fighter with less experience in top-level heavyweight boxing, former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping is picking Oleksandr Usyk to take the 0 from Fury’s undefeated record.
“Of course, the reach of Fury is going to be an issue and Tyson’s fast, he moves his head well and there’s a reason why he’s undefeated,” said Bisping via his official YouTube channel: “Full respect to Tyson Fury, I just think that Usyk is going to get it done.”
“I’ve got Usyk in this one and I’m basing a lot of it on those two victories over Anthony Joshua.”
“We spoke about it the other day, [about] MMA math and boxing math not stacking up, but I think it does a little bit [in this fight],” he stated, harking back to Usyk’s domination of Joshua, followed by AJ’s demolition of Francis Ngannou after a lackluster Fury could only scrape past ‘The Predator’ on points last time out.
“Usyk is used to fighting bigger guys, this is nothing new for him, I think he’s the faster guy with better footwork and better technicalities.”
In a separate breakdown video, Bisping went further into detail about how Usyk can get the better of ‘The Gypsy King’ in Riyadh this weekend, and again the UFC veteran argued that the Ukrainian can win the fight with his superior movement:
“It’s the footwork, it’s the speed, it’s the angles, it’s the pressure on the inside and then being disciplined to be all the way out when he’s not.”
“It’s also that fighting spirit, it’s that championship heart, it’s the people of Ukraine that has got to inspire and he’s going to walk into that ring feeling the pressure, but pressure makes diamonds.”
Despite acknowledging that the outspoken Englishman has major physical advantages in terms of height and weight, Bisping returned to the idea that facing a giant like Fury is nothing new to ‘The Cat’.
“Usyk not being the tallest cruiserweight and being at heavyweight, he’s used to fighting the taller guys, so I don’t think that’s going to be an issue for him. Usyk is going to be all about footwork and speed and movement.”
Alexander Volkanovski argues Tyson Fury will get his hand raised
Despite sharing their prediction videos from opposite sides of the world, former UFC featherweight king Alexander Volkanovski gave a remarkably similar breakdown of this weekend’s boxing showcase.
“Usyk’s very unorthodox, he’s got his own unique style and he’s smaller, but he uses that so well against these bigger guys [and] his footwork is very, very slick.”
“I do remember Tyson talking about one of his hardest fights and it was against someone smaller, and he said that he had big problems with him so that is a factor, but he is aware of that awkward style [of Usyk] now.”
Yet despite touching on many of the same ideas as ‘The Count’, Volkanovski ultimately forecast that the footwork of Usyk wouldn’t be enough to overcome the size advantage possessed by the British juggernaut and predicted that Fury would emerge victorious from the Ring of Fire.
“It’s a tricky one because they’re both great fighters but I’m going to go with the size here and Tyson Fury… I love watching Usyk fight, but I think with the size, Tyson’s going to get the win.”
Volkanovski also touched on the ‘math’ of the situation regarding Joshua and Ngannou as previous opponents.
Yet instead of siding with boxing math working in favor of Usyk, the former featherweight champion argued that fans shouldn’t be taking too many lessons away from Fury’s performance against Ngannou.
“I just think that the size and the work he’s going to do in preparation, I reckon he’s went above and beyond, he’s got something to prove after the last one, so I think that’s going to be the case with this one.”
Two excellent breakdowns of what should be an excellent night of fights, Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk goes down this weekend from the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.