Oleksandr Usyk is seemingly bulking up again in new training footage ahead of the Tyson Fury fight.
Ukraine’s WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight world champion will face the WBC title-holder to crown an undisputed king of the division on February 17 in Saudi Arabia.
Fury vs Usyk is set for February 17Credit: Top Rank
The fight will be a task like no other Usyk has faced before in terms of sheer size.
Within his first 16 fights, Usyk cleaned out the cruiserweight (200lbs) division.
He travelled to Poland to beat Krzysztof Glowacki, travelled to America to beat Michael Hunter, travelled to Germany to beat Marco Huck, travelled to Latvia to beat Mairis Briedis, travelled to Russia to beat Murat Gassiev and travelled to the UK to beat Tony Bellew.
By the end of it all, he was crowned the undisputed WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO cruiserweight champion of the world.
Usyk was outsized when he fought heavyweights in the semi-pro WSB series in 2013Credit: Getty
As a result, he opted to move up to heavyweight (200lbs+).
In his first fights in the division, he scaled 215lbs to stop Chazz Witherspoon and then 217¼lbs for a unanimous decision victory over Derek Chisora.
When he challenged Anthony Joshua for the WBA, IBF and WBO world titles in 2021, he weighed 221¼lbs and again won a unanimous decision.
And he kept a similar weight for their 2022 rematch, for which he scaled 221½lbs and emerged victorious by split decision.
Usyk is now looking far bigger and appears to be bulking up againCredit: Alex Krassyuk – Instagram
In August of this year he made a mandatory defence against Daniel Dubois and was once again 221lbs.
Now though, he is set to face 6ft 9ins Fury, who has repeatedly weighed as high as 277lbs in recent years.
As such, it appears he may be bulking up again as he’s been seen looking huge while training with a medicine ball in new footage on Monday.
Some fans are concerned this could take away from his marvellous boxing attributes though, potentially costing him dearly against Fury.
Usyk has put on plenty of muscle to compete in the heavyweight division
One said: “Nothing wrong with this, but if you start trying to bulk up and go in there slow as molasses giving up all your advantages it’ll be a long night, or maybe a short one.”
While a second fan wrote: “He will be like a rabbit in the headlights when fury is looking across the ring at him.”
And another commented: “Hope he doesn’t go for the knockout route. Nobody is knocking out Tyson fury the man is a real life undertaker. Box and move.”