By Ken Hissner: All we seem to see in the news pertaining to a pair of unification matches not happening, one has to wonder why are they not happening?
The heavyweight match proposed between WBA, WBO, IBF champion Oleksandr Usyk and WBC champion Tyson “The Gypsy King” Fury was going to happen, and then it fell apart. It never stops. If they are not fighting, then they should fight their No. 1 contender.
It seems Fury is the problem. He only has one belt, while Usyk has three so a 50-50 deal should be acceptable. Usyk seems to be satisfied with taking less money in order to have a unification match.
Fury’s top contender is former WBC champion Deontay “The Bronze Bomber” Wilder, 43-2-1, and yes, they have already fought each other three times with a draw and a pair of wins by Fury. Former champion Andy “Destroyer” Ruiz, 35-2, is No. 2 if a fourth meeting between Fury and Wilder is not interesting, then Fury and Ruiz should happen.
Usyk had two minor champions he could fight in Daniel “Dynamite” Dubois, 19-1, who has nothing scheduled, or Joe ‘Juggernaut” Joyce, 15-0, who fights this weekend against Zhilei Zhang, 24-1, so that winner or Dubois would be acceptable. Dubois, who is not scheduled to fight, would be my choice.
Then we look at the ongoing match between WBO Welterweight champions Terence “Bud” Crawford, 39-0, and IBF, WBA, and WBC champion Errol “The Truth” Spence, Jr., 28-0, which seems to be falling apart daily. Seems Crawford wants it more than Spence.
Spence has two minor champions he could fight in Jaron ”Boots” Ennis, 30-0, who no one seems to want to fight, and Eimantas Stanionis, 14-0. A match between Spence and Ennis would certainly be the choice here.
The only unification champions are Super Middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, 58-2-2, Super Welterweight champion Jermell ”Iron Man” Charlo, 35-1-1, Bantamweight champion Naoya “Monster” Inoue, 24-0, and Lightweight champion Devin “The Dream” Haney, 29-0.
The Cruiserweights have four champions; Light Heavyweights have two, Middleweights have two, Super Lightweights two, Super Featherweights four, Featherweights four, Super Bantamweights two, Flyweights three, Light Flyweights four, and Minimumweights four. So unifications with one’s having more than two champions is even harder to see being made.