By Charles Brun: Tyson Fury says he’s not confident at all that Anthony Joshua will win his fight against WBO mandatory Oleksandr Usyk in September. Joshua is stubbornly choosing to hold onto his WBO heavyweight strap and defend it against Usyk (18-0, 13 KOs) in a risky fight that brings nothing to the table in terms of money or acclaim.
Joshua risking his career fighting Usyk
If Joshua loses to Usyk, which Fury believes is very, very possible, he’ll be in a situation where he would have to fight him again. Joshua’s career would basically be on the line for the second fight with Usyk.
Joshua isn’t just potentially messing things up for himself by taking the Usyk fight. If he loses to Usyk, he’ll irreparably change the fortunes for Fury, who would make a fortune fighting him.
It’s a selfish and irresponsible move on Joshua’s part to take the Usyk fight because he’s potentially hurting himself, Matchroom, Fury, and Top Rank. There are a lot of people that will be harmed if Joshua loses this fight to Usyk.
A second defeat to Usyk would be the end for Joshua. With it, you could say goodbye to the money Joshua and Fury would have made if they had vacated their useless belts and met in Saudi Arabia.
No one would be the wiser if AJ vacated the WBO trinket, as the fans could care less if all four titles are on the line for the Joshua-Fury fight.
There’s literally NOTHING Joshua can gain from the Usyk fight aside from holding onto his WBO belt, which might as well be a useless ribbon.
The fans already view Joshua as one of the two heavyweight champions. Moreover, the ordeal that Joshua must go through to hold onto the WBO belt isn’t worth the payoff.
While Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) has no doubts that he’ll successfully defend his WBC heavyweight title against Deontay Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) next month on July 24th, he thinks Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs) could lose to the hungry, crafty former undisputed cruiserweight champion Usyk (18-0, 13 KOs).
Joshua could lose
“Now they’re left with Joshua stuck between a rock and a hard place,” said Tyson Fury to the Daily Mail about Hearn and Matchroom choosing to take Usyk fight.
“I don’t think they [Matchroom] fancy the Ukrainian guy (Oleksandr Usyk) for the fight he needs in August. And with their DAZN deal, it looks now as if that will be their last fight with Joshua,” said Fury.
You’d like to think that Eddie Hearn had the courage and foresight to try and talk some sense into Joshua by telling him to forget about fighting Usyk. Instead, vacate the WBO title and wait for the smoke to clear from the Fury vs. Wilder 3 clash. There’s too much risk involved in Joshua fighting Usyk.
“Usyk is a southpaw, clever, technically very good,” Fury continued. “He’s smaller as a former cruiserweight champion but he handled Derek Chisora, who is physically tougher than Joshua.
“So while I’m absolutely confident of beating Wilder, I’m not so sure about AJ not losing his fight,” said Fury.
Charles Brun totally agrees with Fury. Joshua could lose to Usyk, and from there, his career could be a dumpster fire.