By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn is already leaning in the direction of Oleksandr Usyk to defeat Tyson Fury in an undisputed heavyweight championship this year.
While Hearn admits the Fury-Usyk fight likely won’t be a pleasing one due to all the movement, he feels that Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) has the talent to win.
Fury (32-0-1, 23 KOs) has become slow with his movements since adding a lot of weight to his dough boy frame, and that tonnage will slow him down against a smaller heavyweight like Usyk.
The weight that Fury packed on helped him defeat Deontay Wilder by leaning on him to tire him out. Unfortunately, that won’t work against IBF, WBA, and WBO heavyweight champion Usyk because he’s going to stay on the move.
Usyk won’t stand in front of Fury like a punching bag with arms the way Wilder did.
Without Fury being able to use his 260+ lb weight to lean on Usyk, that weight is going to be an anchor, which will drag him down in the later rounds. Moreover, Fury’s punches are so slow, that he’s not going to be able to connect on the fleet of foot Usyk.
“It’s actually not a very good fight to watch, but it’s an intriguing fight to watch,” said Eddie Hearn to the DAZN Boxing Show about his thoughts on a potential fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk.
“I think they’re going to negate each other with movement, and Tyson Fury doesn’t want to fight Oleksandr Usyk, but he may have to because the money is so big.
“Yeah, I don’t think Fury is going to be chomping at the bit to fight Usyk. I think he could beat him, but I would have Oleksandr Usyk in that fight just because he’s so good.
“Fury is good as well. They’re both very, very intelligent boxers,” said Hearn.
Joshua wanted Fury fight
“Actually, funny enough, that’s the one thing AJ said to me on the phone was, ‘I was so gutted because I wanted that Fury fight.’ He wanted to give the public that fight.
“I said, ‘You’ll probably still have that fight. Don’t worry about that for now.
“He says, ‘People think I’m in this for the money,'” Hearn said Joshua told him. “With all due respect, he doesn’t spend any money. He loves the sport,” Hearn said about Joshua.
