Oleksandr Usyk sends chilling warning to Tyson Fury after dad John's headbutt

Oleksandr Usyk has warned Tyson Fury he has a secret army of knife-wielding soldiers at his beck and call should his rival's team cross the line again this week.

A hotel skirmish between the fighters' entourages reached a violent crescendo on Monday when Fury's dad John headbutted one of the smallest of Usyk's friends. Fury Sr, 59, was left with blood running down his face after picking on Stanislav Stepchuk whom he accused of disrespecting his world-champion son.

The rest of Usyk's furious team were champing at the bit to avenge their stricken compatriot but their leader, who himself joined the frontline when Russia declared war on Ukraine in 2022, kept a cool head as he put the Furys on notice ahead of their undisputed heavyweight clash on Saturday.

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Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk are set to lock horns in a huge bout on May 18 with each fighter attempting to etch their name in boxing history as the first undisputed heavyweight champion since 1999. The stakes couldn't be higher as the pair will go head to head for the prestigious WBC, WBA, WBO, and IBF titles.

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"It’s bad behaviour from Tyson’s team. We are professional athletes, not street fighters, and this is a big event for our people, the UK and Ukraine," he said. "If they want to destabilise my team, it’s not possible because I don’t just have professional coaches and trainers, I have professional soldiers.

"My team is very good at wanting to fight, not boxing but street fighting, shooting, knives and wrestling. Of course it’s disappointing that it happened at an event like this, because it is about discipline. But I am not disappointed by my team, they are disappointed because I pulled them back and stopped them from fighting.

"They wanted to go, they were looking over at me waiting for the signal to go. They were waiting for the thumbs up but I gave them the thumbs down. 'Back, back please', I said. They were not happy but we had to behave properly. The situation doesn’t matter to me, it’s just more motivation for my team."

Stepchuk was left with a bruised forehead but Usyk's team decided to take no further action. Fury Sr, who spent four years in prison for gouging out a man's eye, later apologised directly to Saudi Arabia's boxing ringmaster Turki Alalshikh for the assault which overshadowed the start of an historic fight week.

Fury and Usyk have so far been kept apart in the desert but will come face to face tomorrow, 48 hours before they meet in the Riyadh ring to crown the division's first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis defeated Evander Holyfield in 1999. And while the Brit laughed off his dad's ugly behaviour, Usyk will use the altercation as fuel ahead of the landmark first bell.

"My friend did not bleed because he is a powerful guy," he added. "He is a street guy. Did you see the video? He was like a Pitbull. He’s only my friend, it’s a secret who the soldiers are in my team. It’s bad, it’s just bad and a stupid situation. I don’t want to call John 'bad' because I don’t know him or his mind. But he hit my friend, my team and it’s just another reason for me to win in the ring."