Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk ‘hauled aside’ after intense 11-minute stare down

Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk had to be hauled apart after an intense stare down.

Neither heavyweight dared to be the first man to turn away from his opponent as they stared at each other for an incredible 11 minutes. On Saturday (December 21) in Riyadh, Fury will try to avenge the sole loss of his professional career, after he was outpointed by Usyk in May.

And the pair came face-to-face for one last time on Thursday. “I’m gonna dish out a whole lot of pain. I’m gonna put this f***er in the hurt locker for sure,” Fury warned the champion.

“I’ve got nothing to say apart from there’s gonna be a whole lot of hurt and pain in this fight – you watch. The first fight I talked, I joked – my whole career [I did that].”

The pair then stood face-to-face, with neither one wanted to back away in the bizarre scenes. Seven minutes had passed when WBC president Maurico Sulaiman tied to separate the boxers, but his attempts fell on deaf ears. After nine minutes the pair started to speak to each other.

However, with no microphone present, it was unclear what they said. Members of their respective teams were finally able to haul the pair apart as the stare down almost reached the 12-minute mark.

On Saturday, Usyk defends the WBC, WBO and WBA belts against Fury, having given up the IBF title in June. IBF rules stated that Usyk would have to face his mandatory after his May win over Fury – causing him to vacate the belt when he opted to battle the Gypsy King.

The weigh in for the second fight is due to be on Friday at 5pm UK time. This will then be followed by the fight on Saturday where ring walks are scheduled to begin at 10pm UK time.