Oleksandr Usyk has revealed that he took things a little easy against Derek Chisora to get the Anthony Joshua fight.
As Usyk gets ready to face Daniel Dubois on August 26th, 2023, the perception going into the fight is that Chisora provided a blueprint on how to gain some success over the Ukrainian.
The Brit piled on the pressure and came forward in an attempt to bully Usyk. Despite this being the case, Usyk won via a unanimous decision.
Thereafter, Usyk faced Joshua and won in two comprehensive bouts as he outboxed the Brit to become the unified heavyweight champion.
But given that the Chisora fight is being highlighted as a way of showing chinks in Usyk’s armour, the latter downplayed any insights from the fight by admitting that he did take his foot off the gas.
“Let people watch my fight with Derek Chisora and think what they used to think. “Yes, this is true [I looked this way intentionally],” Usyk
That view was also held by Tyson Fury. The ‘Gypsy King’ had previously mentioned the same point when asked about the Ukrainian’s move up to heavyweight.
Great minds! You guys weren’t alone in these thoughts. Tyson Fury mentioned it too before the Wilder trilogy – suggesting Usyk may have held back against Chisora and Witherspoon. pic.twitter.com/dJj2mQ3hLx
— Dev Sahni (@devsahni) August 21, 2023
“Maybe he’s not showing us everything he can do. Maybe he’s just been playing around with Chisora and the other guy he fought, Witherspoon, maybe he didn’t even try and win those fights properly.
“Maybe he was looking bad on purpose, so he could get that big payday and then do his good boxing on that night, which has been done before.
“A lot of fighters have looked terrible in fights to get other big fights and then rose to the occasion and won those big fights,” Fury