By Charles Brun: Johnny Nelson says he thinks Tyson Fury doesn’t believe he can defeat the unbeaten unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk in December, which is why the aging ‘Gyspy King’ is trying to squeeze as much money he can out of that fight because it would be a cash-out.
If “Greedy Belly” Fury, as Usyk now calls him, weasels his way out of his fight with Usyk, his promoters at Queensberry and Top Rank are going to need to do some fast hustling to find a high-caliber opponent that the Saudis will agree to for him to fight on the December card.
Usyk’s style of fight, involving speed, movement, and accurate sniper rifle-like headshots, is bad news for the lumber, mauling, grappling slug that Fury has become since teaming up with American trainer Sugarhill Steward.
The Saudis at Skills Challenge Entertainment, the promotional company that is staging the December event in Saudi Arabia, surely won’t dump a treasure chamber’s worth of dough for Fury to fight another shot journeyman like we’ve been seeing from him.
Fury’s ambition to fight A-level opposition appears to have evaporated since his punishing trilogy match with Deontay Wilder in 2021. Tyson was knocked down twice in that contest from powerful sledgehammer right hands from Wilder.
Interestingly, since that fight, Fury has become difficult to negotiate with, rarely fights, and has seemed hesitant to get in with quality opposition.
Some fans wonder is whether Wilder’s bombs that he landed to the head of Fury somehow changed his powers of reasoning, transforming him into the obstinate, ham-handed ‘Greedy Belly,’ who hasn’t fought a quality opponent since that grueling fight.
Nelson understands why WBC champion Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs) would want to get the most loot out of the undisputed heavyweight championship fight with Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs). Still, his demands could leave him empty-handed, stuck with having to trot another journeyman to fight.
“It sounds like Tyson Fury doesn’t believe he beats Usyk. So all the demands, all the negotiating, all the hustling might be to squeeze out as much as he possibly can financially,” said Johnny Nelson to Secondsout about his belief that Tyson Fury lacks the self-confidence to take the fight with Oleksandr Usyk in December.
“I won’t be one of these fools who blow smoke up his a**. I see through it. You can fight, and you deserve the lion’s share, but I’m not buying that bulls**t [that no one wants to fight you],” said Nelson about Fury.
