By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn says Tyson Fury goes down as one of the greatest heavyweights of all time if he beats unified champion Oleksandr Usyk and former two-time champ Anthony Joshua.
Fans would obviously disagree with Hearn setting such a low bar for how the 34-year Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs) can become one of the greatest heavyweights that have ever breathed because his resume, as it is right now, is weak, filled with lesser opposition.
Fury would have to do much more than beat 36-year-old former cruiserweight undisputed champion Usyk and the washed-up Joshua to be among the greats.
Does Fury deserve to be among these great heavyweights?
– Joe Louis
– Muhammad Ali
– Mike Tyson
– Jack Dempsey
– Rocky Marciano
– Jack Johnson
– George Foreman
– Sonny Liston
Having Fury perched at the top of the tree ahead of those greats would be a joke. The only ones who would agree to have him there are his fans and Hearn.
“On August 12th, Anthony Joshua will fight Dillian Whyte on DAZN. After that, he will fight Deontay Wilder in Saudi Arabia, and then it has to be Tyson Fury,” said Eddie Hearn on Piers Morgan’s Youtube channel.
“Tyson Fury turned down the Oleksandr Usyk fight, the biggest fight really, the most important battle in boxing for the undisputed heavyweight world championship to fight an MMA fighter who’s never fought before in his life [in boxing] also in Saudi Arabia.”
Fury is obviously on his way out of the sport, but he’s never shown interest in fighting the best over and over. He fought Wladimir Klitschko when he was old & gray and never fought these guys:
– Arslanbek Makhmudov
– Jared Anderson
– Frank Sanchez
– Filip Hrgovic
– Zhilei Zhang
– Andy Ruiz
– Oleksandr Usyk
– Anthony Joshua
“We’ve got to be honest. Tyson Fury cares about one thing. Only the money. Don’t talk to me about legacy. Don’t talk to me about undisputed,” said Hearn.
“He’s beaten Wladimir Klitschko and Deontay Wilder. That’s his [best] wins. He needs to beat Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua, and then we can talk about him as one of the greatest heavyweights of all time,” said Hearn.
Hearn points out that Fury has only beaten two notable fights during his long career – Wladimir Klitschko & Deontay Wilder.
Klitschko was 39 years old and at the end of his career when Fury fought him, which was still a very close fight. Watching that fight, one can’t help but think what a young Wladimir would have done to Fury.
In Fury’s three fights against Wilder, he was arguably knocked out in two of them but was saved by the referees. In the second fight, Fury brained Wilder with an illegal rabbit punch that he never recovered from.
