Oleksandr Usyk skips public workout

OLEKSANDR USYK and Murat Gassiev entertained a big crowd at Tuesday’s public workout in Moscow.

Usyk, however, surprisingly did not do any of the usual skipping, shadow boxing or pad work, but instead waved and bowed in front of the hundreds of fans at the Oceania Shopping Mall.

Even though Usyk is fighting in his opponents home country there was a lot of noisy support for the Ukrainian.

“I came, entertained the crowd a bit and did some interviews, but I did not show any boxing today,” said Usyk. “You must keep people hungry, not overfeed them. On Saturday people will see everything.”

Murat Gassiev did the classic workout and threw t-shirts into an ecstatic crowd. “It was a good training in front of a lot of people, but I am looking forward to seeing many more on Saturday,” he said.

200 journalists from all over the world have accreditation for Saturday’s final at the Olympic Sports Complex in Moscow. Over 10,000 tickets have been sold and 20,000 are expected for the historic cruiserweight final.

The winner of Usyk-Gassiev will be the first boxer ever to win the Muhammad Ali Trophy and unify the cruiserweight titles in the four belt era. The belts on the line will be the WBO, WBC, IBF and WBA Super cruiserweight championships.

The mouthwatering final will be a key event during a weekend of boxing activities in the Russian capital in celebration of International Boxing Day after Comosa were invited to bring and supervise the first final of ‘The Greatest Prize in Boxing’ – the Ali Trophy – to the festival of pugilism.