‘He crybabies to the ref’: Warren says Usyk has history of complaining during fights

As Tyson Fury recovers for a rescheduled unification with Oleksandr Usyk, promoter Frank Warren still expects Fury to show up in great form.

An undisputed heavyweight unification match between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk had to be delayed due to a cut Fury suffered during sparring, but with the fight expected to still come off on May 18, Queesnbury promoter Frank Warren appeared on Sky Sports’ Toe2Toe podcast and say he’s confident Fury will be back in tip-top shape for the fight.

Warren says there’s pressure coming from governing bodies to get this fight on as the sanctioning organizations don’t want all the belts sitting idle and dismisses any idea that the delay was some sort of ruse to buy Fury more time to prepare.

So as Warren looks towards the fight itself, he mentions that Usyk seems to have an apparent weakness to the body and says he has a penchant for looking to the referee for reprieve. To that end Warren believes they’ll need a firm referee who won’t be easily manipulated.

“He has previous for complaining and moaning when he gets caught to the body,” Warren said. “Now he’s in there with a guy who is the master of taking advantage of any weakness. He does it a lot Usyk, he ‘crybabies’ to the ref. He’s had previous for it about body shots. As long as the referee’s strong in that I’m really happy and I’m even more confident in Tyson in this fight than I was prior to [Usyk] fighting Daniel Dubois,” Warren said.

None of this has seemed to particular phase Usyk, however, who by all accounts is patiently waiting and preparing for his moment to earn the ever elusive undisputed heavyweight status.