No trimming for Tyson: Fury’s beard stays for Usyk

Tyson Fury will be allowed to fight with his long beard against unified heavyweight champion Alexander Usyk this Saturday night. Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) opted not to shave and was given the green light to compete with a lumberjack-looking beard.

Usik’s team reportedly complained about his beard and wanted Fury, 36, to shave it off, but he has no intention of doing so. His reasoning for having a long beard is unclear, but some believe it helps soften his beard and protects him from being hurt again by Usyk’s powerful left arm.

Why Beard now?

Fans believe that the large chin provides additional protection against blows to the chin, which is where Fury was injured in the first fight. If this is why Fury decided to keep his beard, it gives the impression of a desperate man willing to do anything to win.

A clean-shaven Fury was rocked badly in the ninth round by Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) in their first fight on May 18 and was saved by the referee, who counted him eight in the blink of an eye. .

“He’s got a beard, and there’s been a lot of fighters over the years who’ve fought with beards, and that’s it,” Fury’s promoter Frank Warren told Ski Sports Boxing.

Fury’s decision to grow a long mountain man beard suggests he is desperate to win, looking for every possible angle to get the V against his former conqueror Usyk on Saturday night. Gispi King has to win to get the trilogy match against Usik that Turki Alalshikh wants to happen.

Is Fury trying to curry favor with Turkey with his beard? I wouldn’t be surprised if that was one of the motivations for the Gispy King to wear a beard, along with protecting the beard.

Fury Desperate

There is a lot of money for Fury if he can get a third fight with Alexander, in addition to the two likely fights expected against Anthony Joshua.

We really don’t know why Fury chose to fight with a beard, since he treated the rematch with Usyk differently than his previous fights. He claims he hasn’t spoken to his wife Paris in three months since the start of his training camp. If true, this suggests that Fury is desperate to win and is doing his best to win.

Fury looks like he’s gone through an accelerated aging process since his loss, and you can tell the loss has hit him hard mentally. People age under stress, and Fury looks like it’s been 10 years since his first fight with Alexander.

Given how desperate Fury is to win, let’s hope he doesn’t resort to fouling Usyk on Saturday night. Current and former fighters came out of the ring to recommend Fury spoil Usyk to help him win.