‘Not a bad thing’ – Ricky Hatton explains why Tyson Fury’s fight with Francis Ngannou could end up being good preparation for facing Oleksandr Usyk

Ricky Hatton has told talkSPORT that he believes Tyson Fury may well benefit from his lacklustre performance against Francis Ngannou when he fights Oleksandr Usyk.

The Gypsy King was floored as he crept to a narrow split decision win over Ngannou last month, and will now head into the undisputed heavyweight world title showdown on February 17.

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Of course, many questions have been raised about Fury following his back-and-forth bout with the MMA star and some fans are expressing doubts about his chances of beating Usyk.

However, Hatton told talkSPORT Breakfast on Thursday: "I think Tyson will certainly be a lot better than he was last time.

"And he'll certainly have to be, he doesn't need me to tell him that, but I think he will be.

"The last fight, I think he simply just took the fella - even though he was a monster of a man - I think he took him little bit lightly.

"I think he could've come in in a little bit better shape than what he did do.

"I went to Saudi Arabia for the fight and it was such an occasion - I think Tyson forgot what he was there for!

"He forgot what he was there to do! It was such an occasion and he was fighting this UFC fighter who's not had a boxing match before in his life and I think he just took it all a little bit lightly."

Hatton then explained why he thinks this could ultimately have a positive impact on Fury and effectively act as a wake-up call for him before the undisputed fight.

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"It's probably not such a bad thing," he continued, "It's probably what you want before you go fighting Oleksandr Usyk because he'll know, 'I've gotta pull my socks up, I can't be performing like that again.'

"So it probably wasn't such a bad thing, but yeah we thought we'd lost it when Tyson was struggling.

"A lot of people thought he might have lost the fight or thought, 'There's that Usyk fight gone.'

"But he got the decision, which I thought he just did, he won it by the narrowest of margins, just because he was a little bit busier.

"But he'll be up for this Usyk fight, and he'll need to be, because only Tyson Fury's best will beat this fella."