By Charles Brun: Tyson Fury has serious doubts about WBO heavyweight mandatory Oleksandr Usyk’s ability to defeat the top fighters in the weight class after watching him struggle to defeat Dereck Chisora on October 31st last year.
The reason Fury is giving his two cents about the 34-year-old Usyk’s viability in the division is the potential that he could be forced to defend against him if he beats the current WBO champion Anthony Joshua this year.
Fury and AJ are in negotiations for the first of two fights this year, with the first expected to take place in June on pay-per-view.
If Fury gets his hands on Joshua’s WBO belt, he might be stuck facing the 2012 Olympic gold medalist Usyk in 2022 and be forced to deal with his spoiling style of fighting.
Usyk (18-0, 13 KOs) narrowly edged the 37-year-old Chisora (32-10, 23 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores 115-113, 115-113, and 117-112.
Fury wonders about Usyk’s future
“I thought actually, Chisora deserved a win or a draw, at worst, but he lost it on a split so that he couldn’t think it, but if you’re struggling with Derek Chisora, then how you going to beat the top guys in the division,” said Tyson Fury to iFL TV on Usyk’s ability to compete at the top of the heavyweight division.
Usyk is the equivalent of the ‘new kid on the block,’ so it’s not a shock that Fury is showing irritation at seeing him as a potential rival to him and Joshua.
Some boxing fans believe the 6’3″ southpaw Usyk has the perfect fighting style to unseat both of the callosal heavyweight champions, Joshua and Fury.
While Usyk did have his issues against the 6’2″ Chisora, that’s a much smaller heavyweight than AJ and Fury, and it could be a situation where it was a bad style for him.
Against a bigger heavyweight like Fury, Usyk’s nimble footwork and slick defensive skills could make him miserable. This could be a modern-day ‘David vs. Goliath’ type of match between Usyk and Fury in 2022 if the ‘Gypsy King’ fancies the fight.
Charles Brun gets the impression that Fury is turning his nose up to the idea of fighting Usyk as if he’s not good enough to share the ring with him.
Hopefully, Fury doesn’t see himself as too good for Usyk to share the ring with him because he’s starting to get a snobby, elitist attitude.
If it bothers Fury so much that Usyk lacks the ability to exist at the heavyweight level, he can always test that theory by fighting him to show the boxing world that he doesn’t belong.
Of course, Usyk may be weeded out long before Fury gets to him if his match against 2016 Olympic silver medalist Joe Joyce takes place.
Usyk and Joyce are supposed to be battling for the interim WBO heavyweight title, with the winner to be elevated to full champion after the Joshua vs. Fury fight in June.
The negotiations for the Usyk-Joyce fight have hit a snag over the purse split, and it might require that the World Boxing Organization step in and help settle it.
Usyk has already beaten Joyce once before winning a five-round decision in the World Series of Boxing back in 2013, but that was a long time ago.
If Usyk does beat Joyce, as many believe he will, he’ll soon be the WBO champion. Fury can either face him or do whatever. If he wants to ignore Usyk, he can, but it’ll be obvious to the fans that he wants no part of the talented Ukrainian. It’ll look like Fury is running scared of Usyk.