By Robert Segal: Oleksandr Usyk says he’s open to a “freak fight” for “money” against Canelo Alvarez before he hangs up his gloves.
Whether the Canelo match-up can happen will largely be determined on his success in his rematch with Dmitry Bivol. It would be pointless for Canelo (58-2-2, 39 KOs) and Usyk to try and sell a pay-per-view fight to the boxing public if the Mexican star is coming off another one-sided loss to Bivol.
IBF, WBA & WBO heavyweight champion Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) revealed today that he plans on fighting just three more times before retiring from the sport. The fights that Usyk wants are against Tyson Fury, Canelo, and a match in Ukraine.
“He wanted to fight with me. But it will be a freak fight, just for the sake of earning money. Why not? I mean, it’s just for money,” said Usyk to USYK17 about his interest in fighting Canelo Alvarez.
There’s no other reason for Canelo and Usyk to fight other than money because it would be a mismatch. When someone mentioned to Canelo the possibility of fighting Usyk, that was before his loss to Bivol and his less than impressive showing against Gennadiy Golovkin last Saturday night.
When you look at those two fights, Canelo will stand no chance at all of being competitive against Usyk unless he stays in first gear the entire fight. The 5’8″ Canelo would be giving up a lot of height & reach against the 6’3″ Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs).
It would help Canelo if he first fought at cruiserweight against one of the champions like Lawrence Okolie before moving up to heavyweight to take on Usyk for his three world titles. Of course, Canelo won’t do that because this would be just a money fight against Usyk, and I don’t think he really believes he could win.
“[Deontay] Wilder, I guess. [But I prefer] Fury. I don’t take the easy way out,” said Usyk when asked who would be the most comfortable fight for him out of Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder, and Anthony Joshua.
Deontay Wilder’s handlers are going to keep him away from Usyk because they got to know that’s a bad style match-up for him. They’re trying to rebuild him, and it would wreck their plans if they threw him in with Usyk, who is a smaller version of Tyson Fury.
