“Is this still a fight you want ‘Greedy Belly’?” analyst Ade Oladipo asked Usyk during the interview.
“Yeah. ‘Greedy Belly’ win (against Arslanbek Makhmudov) is good,” Usyk said.
Usyk then described how he reacted anxiously during parts of the fight after Makhmudov landed clean shots in the fourth round.
“Fourth round, Makhmudov landed a couple,” Usyk said. “I went, ‘Oh, be careful. Hands up, what are you doing? This is bad.'”
The exchange sounded less like a promotion and more like a technician watching another heavyweight make mistakes in real time.
Usyk has barely spoken publicly about Dubois even though Dubois got off the canvas twice to stop Fabio Wardley in the 11th round last Saturday. He captured the WBO heavyweight title in the process.
That silence became noticeable because Usyk Dubois had already stopped twice. Fury, meanwhile, still seems to occupy a very different place in Usyk’s thinking despite losing to him twice.
“A lot of my friends text me, ‘Your friend wins. It’s good,'” Usyk said of Fury’s win over Makhmudov.
Usyk became the undisputed heavyweight champion during his rivalry with Fury before the WBO title later returned to circulation. Dubois now holds that belt, but Usyk’s recent comments suggest he still views Fury as the defining opponent of this stage of his career rather than a completed chapter.
A third Fury fight looked dead after Usyk’s second win last December. Fury’s comeback against Makhmudov changed the conversation again.
Usyk returns to the ring on May 23 when he defends his WBC heavyweight title against Rico Verhoeven at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.
Tyson Fury’s last fight had Oleksandr Usyk PANIC 🫣
🎟️ Buy USYK vs RICO HERE –> https://t.co/FoiaUucI53#UsykRico | Glory In Giza | 23 May | @RingMagazine pic.twitter.com/I5ghL7upDJ
— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) May 13, 2026
