Oleksandr Usyk has turned up the heat on Tyson Fury in response to the announcement earlier this week of a fight between the Gypsy King and former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou in Saudi Arabia on the 28th of October.

After the press conference in London yesterday promoting Usyk’s bout against Daniel Dubois in WrocÅ‚aw, Poland on the 26th of August, the Ukrainian was asked by Sky Sports for his thoughts on Fury’s decision to take on the boxing newcomer.

What has Usyk said about Fury vs Ngannou?

Usyk said: “This is a great opportunity for Francis Ngannou. For Tyson Fury, it’s definitely not. Doesn’t it seem strange that instead of choosing a top 10 guy, he is choosing someone who never boxed before?”

When he was then asked if he thought Fury was scared, Usyk didn’t pull any punches.

“Yeah, of course. Of course! Greedy belly is afraid of me.”

Why did Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk never happen?

The war of words between the two men has been ongoing since talks over an undisputed heavyweight world title fight collapsed in March of this year.

As ever in these circumstances, each camp has blamed their counterpart for the inability to find an agreeable deal. In the immediate aftermath, Fury took to social media to attack Usyk, labelling him a “coward” in an aggressive rant. His father John doubled down on this last month, calling Usyk “a liar and a coward” in an interview with the SecondsOut YouTube channel.

For the fans, although the verbal handbags can be amusing, there is widespread frustration at the situation. Many will now fear that we will never get to see the two champions take to the ring against each other.

Usyk, though, appeared as relaxed as ever in front of the cameras in the English capital.

The Ukrainian was highly complimentary of his next opponent, describing Dubois as “a nice man, a nice guy, a nice athlete” and saying that he has “respect for him, his team, for all the people around him.”

After the unified world champion faced off against his mandatory challenger, he then broke out into a spontaneous rap on stage before raising both hands in the sign of peace.

The jovial mood continued when Usyk was interviewed by SecondsOut afterwards.

Oleksandr Usyk calls out Conor McGregor

He initially reiterated that his only ambition in boxing is to fight Tyson Fury, but then mused that he had seen that former two-division UFC titleholder Conor McGregor had put some significant weight on his body recently.

“Hey Conor, why don’t we make a fight at Wembley?” was the proposition thrown forward.

Of course, McGregor hasn’t been shy to don the gloves and enter the ring in the past, but one would imagine that this was a tongue-in-cheek comment from Usyk, designed to be another gentle dig into the ribs of Fury for fighting a mixed martial artist rather than a professional boxer.

Time will tell if we ever get to see the heavyweight clash that is so widely desired. First and foremost, Usyk and Fury must successfully negotiate routes past their upcoming adversaries in August and October respectively.

The more difficult negotiations are likely to follow - and it may well be that we have to wait until 2024 to find out if the fight is on.