The unusual way Oleksandr Usyk found Tyson Fury body doubles for sparring

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Oleksandr Usyk has disclosed that he has introduced his own application with the purpose of finding sparring partners who can impersonate Tyson Fury.

On Saturday, Usyk is set to protect his unified heavyweight titles against Fury in Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, Fury will be defending his WBC belt. Unless there is a draw, this match will determine the first undisputed heavyweight champion in 24 years.

Usyk has done really well in the heavyweight category since transitioning in 2019 after being the undefeated cruiserweight champion. However, Fury is quite a challenge as he has a unique combination of size, agility, and a high level of intelligence in the ring.

It can be a tough job to find people to spar with who can replicate the style of the "Gypsy King." However, Usyk's team has shared how they managed to overcome this obstacle - they utilized an application that employs artificial intelligence.

In an interview with The Daily Mail, Sergey Lapin, who manages Usyk's team and oversees the Ready To Fight app, revealed that the app has made it much more convenient to locate sparring partners.

Instead of making numerous calls to around hundred contacts to sort things out, you can now do everything on your phone. This means you can reach out directly to a manager or fighter and everything is clear. Most of the people Usyk sparred with were discovered through the application.

People from various nations around the globe have arrived here. Our association with Africa, to cite one example, is limited to a handful of individuals with whom we have sparred.

Finding sparring partners with the same weight and height as Fury would have been difficult without the app. Although Usyk had sparred with some of his previous partners before, most of the new ones were recruited from the app.

Usyk shared his training routine, revealing that he engages in 15 rounds of sparring, each lasting three and a half minutes, with a 20-second breather in between. As per reports, he has completed more than 250 rounds with an amalgamation of sparring partners, observing over 40 sparring partners in total.

The upcoming bout between Usyk and Fury will feature two undefeated fighters, aged 37 and 35 respectively.

The Fury and Usyk match will be broadcasted on DAZN internationally, with a price tag of £24.99 for those new to the service and £23.99 for current members. New users who sign up for this will receive an extra month of free streaming. You can buy a DAZN subscription for as low as £9.99 a month. Even though we may earn a commission from this link, we never let this affect our content. This income will support the journalism that The Independent provides.