By Dan Ambrose: Promoter Alex Krassyuk says Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder would have very little chance of beating Oleksandr Usyk if they come into a fight against him in the same physical condition they were last Saturday.
Krassyuk feels they neither of those two heavyweights were in good enough shape for them to defeat Usyk. Fury weighed 277 lbs, and he looked fat, and his face showed that he’d aged since last year.
IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) and WBC belt-holder Fury (31-0-1, 22 KOs) could meet in 2022 for the undisputed championship if they were their next fights.
Fury will likely need to defend his WBC title against the winner of the October 30th fight between Dillian Whyte and Otto Wallin. Usyk has a rematch with Anthony Joshua next March.
Many boxing fans think that the 6’9″ Fury will be too big and too strong for Usyk, but they haven’t convinced his promoter Krassyuk. He knows what he sees in Fury, and he’s not worried that Usyk won’t be able to do the job.
Fury & Wilder have a slight chance against Usyk
“If either of them come in similar shape to what they showed on Saturday night, both have very small chances,” said Krassyuk when asked how Fury and Wilder would do against Oleksandr Usyk in a fight.
“I would say if Fury comes to fight Usyk in the shape that he fought Wilder, not the best option for him definitely. By the way, many people thought Usyk would lose to Joshua because of his size because of his skills because of his punch, but we saw what happened.
“Absolutely, it happened several hours before the fight,” said Krassyuk about Joshua activating his rematch clause for a second clash with Usyk. “All the sanctioning bodies received the letters, and they officially triggered the rematch clause.
“At this moment, we are discussing March [for the Joshua vs. Usyk II rematch]. We have seven month period to put the fight on. So, March would work for both of the fighters.
“He is in a position to be on top now,” said Krassyuk about Usyk, who holds three titles.
Fury and Wilder are too plodding for them to have a chance of beating Usyk. We heard Andre Ward say he thinks Fury would beat Usyk, but that might note the case.
Usyk would be capable of improving all the mistakes that Wilder and Fury made last Saturday.
Usyk reacts to Fury vs. Wilder 3 fight
“Great fight but very poor boxing match,” Krassyuk said when asked what the reaction was from Usyk about the Fury vs. Deontay Wilder trilogy last Saturday.
“Spectacular Spartman match between two warriors, but boxing-wise, it didn’t look good. He [Usyk] said it looked like two big guys came to the ring to kill each other. They [Fury and Wilder] took it too personally.”
It had to have been disturbing for Usyk to watch the crude boxing display between Fury and Wilder, and Usyk would have been a better coach for Wilder than Malik Scott.
Wilder put too much weight on, and he was too heavy to move around the ring.
It was the same thing we saw from Wilder last year in his rematch with Fury in February 2020. In training for that fight, Wilder bulked up from 219 lbs to 231-lbs, and he looked slow throughout.
Whyte will give Fury problems, says Krassyuk
“Usyk waited for his chance for two years being the mandatory,” said Krassyuk. “If you mean Otto Wallin and Dillian Whyte, I would give a big percentage to Dillian,” Krassyuk said about the October 30th fight between Whyte and Wallin.
“Although I remember Otto fighting Tyson Fury, and he brought some severe damage to Tyson. In case Dillian Whyte wins, and Fury would have to face the interim champion, who would be Dillian Whyte. That might be a tough one for Tyson.
“I think that would be a really, really big event for the UK, and for a fight itself, it might be a very tough challenge for Tyson Fury. Definitely, yes. 100%,” Krassyuk said when asked if Whyte would be a more formidable challenge for Fury than Deontay Wilder was.
WBC interim champion Dillian Whyte will give the 277-lb version of Fury we saw last weekend more than a “tough challenge.” He’ll likely beat Fury because he’s got the power, size, and stamina to give him trouble.
Wilder probably would have beaten Fury if his stamina wasn’t so poor. The 2018 version of Wilder would be all over Fury, nailing him with headshots and would likely have stopped him.
Krassyuk says Wilder put on too much weight
“I was backing Deontay; I was expecting him to win,” said Krassyuk on the Fury vs. Wilder III match. “I was telling everyone that he knocks Fury out, and he almost did.
“He put him down twice, but the bad thing about Deontay is he put some muscles on that he didn’t manage to use properly.
“His [Wilder] body was not used to that mass, that amount of muscles on his body, and he went out of fuel very fast. In the third and fourth rounds, he was already breathing so hard.
“I don’t know. I think something went wrong in the training camp [of Deontay]. And I heard he broke his hand, but there’s nothing about breathing.
“There’s nothing about conditioning, and he didn’t look fresh. During all of the fight, he looked more like surviving than fighting or struggling for the victory.
“He [Deontay] put on like 10 kilos [22 pounds] since their first fight. It’s a 22 lbs difference in the first fight and the third fight, and I think it’s too much. Why would he have to put that weight on? He was performing great in the first fight.
“He was moving fast, he was showing his boxing skills, and here, he couldn’t even hold his hands up. It was difficult for him because his shoulders, immediately after the first round, grew hard. And he got tired, probably in his walk to the ring.
“He [Deontay] looked amazing for the beach, for Miami for California. His shape was wonderful,” said Krassyuk.
Wilder’s rookie trainer Malik Scott should have known months ago that he had packed on too much muscle mass during camp.
If Malik had noticed that Wilder’s stamina had taken a severe hit, he could have backed him off from his decision to bulk up.
How Scott couldn’t have seen there was a problem with Wilder during camp is beyond me. An experienced trainer would have seen from day one that Wilder needed to reduce weight, not put pack more on, if he wanted to be successful against Fury.
Unfortunately, now it’s too late. Wilder the third fight with Fury, and his chances of ever getting another lucrative match against him are slim.
Moving forward, the best thing Wilder can do now is fire Malik Scott and get an experienced trainer that can help him.
If Wilder sticks with Malik, the chances are that he’ll continue to lose and look worse with each performance.
