Legend Lewis tips Fury to beat Usyk

Boxing great Lennox Lewis is tipping “bigger guy” Tyson Fury to become undisputed world heavyweight champion by beating Oleksandr Usyk.

The winner of Saturday's super-fight in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, will become the first boxer in history to hold all four majors titles.

Lewis was the division’s last undisputed champion when he held the title almost 25 years ago, when there were three recognised world titles.

“Tyson Fury should win on points,” Lewis told BBC Sport.

“The bigger guy has longer arms, great movement.

"Both have great movement, both want to win, so it's going to be a great fight.”

Lewis – widely considered Britain’s greatest heavyweight with wins over Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and Vitali Klitschko – compares the magnitude of the event to NFL’s Super Bowl.

“It's like the last match of the year, and it's the two greatest fighters in the world right now,” he added.

Briton Fury, 35, holds the WBC belt and boasts a record of 34 wins and one draw.

But he is coming off a narrow points win over former UFC star and boxing debutant Francis Ngannou in October.

Lewis, however, is not reading too much into Fury’s last performance.

“Tyson Fury looked bad in the Ngannou fight and I think he realised that himself,” Lewis said.

“What he did is really focused, and you can tell he’s focused because look at his body. He's shredded, he’s muscular, he's looking quick and that's the way we know Tyson Fury.”

Ukrainian Usyk has won all 21 professional fights and holds the WBA, IBF and WBO titles, having previously won the undisputed title at cruiserweight.

The 37-year-old makes a third defence of his unified belts he won by dethroning Anthony Joshua in 2021.

In arguably the most high-profile heavyweight fight in recent history, Lewis warned both Fury and Usyk not to “think about legacy” and instead focus on the job in hand.

He said Fury should use his size advantage, while staying “elusive” will be key to an Usyk victory.

“My gut instinct says it’s going to be like a chess match in the first four rounds,” Lewis, 58, added.

“In the middle rounds, they're going to really open up, because they'll realise it's half the fight already so we got to move.”