Tyson Fury has revealed that his Excellency Turki Alalshikh told him that he’ll be fighting Oleksandr Usyk twice, and the winner of those two contests will face the Anthony Joshua vs. Francis Ngannou winner of their clash on Friday.
Hearn Won’t Be Happy
Promoter Eddie Hearn won’t be happy about this news, considering he’s been talking about Joshua (27-3, 24 KOs) fighting for the undisputed heavyweight championship next if he’s victorious against Ngannou. Hearn has been bragging nonstop about his vision of Joshua marching straight into the undisputed after this Friday, which would be utterly pathetic if it happened.
That’s not going to happen now, and Hearn will obviously be upset because it means AJ will need to take another risky fight while he waits for the smoke to clear from the second Fury-Usyk clash.
The guy that Joshua will be expected to face is the dangerous IBF mandatory Filip Hrgovic, who could wreck things for him and Hearn.
Respect for His Excellency
It’s another hurdle for Joshua that he’ll need to leap over for him to get to the pot of gold against Fury. Still, you’ve got to give His Excellency much respect for making it difficult for Joshua, given that it would be too easy if he were to be allowed to go straight from the Ngannou clash into the winner of the May 18th, Fury vs. Usyk fight.
What His Excellency should do is have Joshua fight Hrgovic, and the winner of the Joseph Parker vs. Zhilei Zhang fight. Now, it would be impressive if Joshua went through that gauntlet to get to the Fury-Usyk winner. AJ could have to face the ultimate gauntlet to get the gold bullion against Fury.
Fury’s Take on Joshua-Ngannou
“I’m a little old and past it but still undefeated in the last 16 years,” said Tyson Fury to Queensberry. “I spoke to Turki, and he said the winner of this fight [Joshua vs. Ngannou] will get the winner of you and Usyk after me and Usyk [fight] and do a rematch. Then the winner of this [Joshua-Ngannou] will get a shot at that.
“Me and Usyk have two fights lined up this year. So, the winner of that fight will get to fight the winner of this fight. There’s a lot on the line, and there’s a lot of risk for AJ, and there’s not much reward for money, which he’s already got plenty of.
“If he goes in and blows him [Ngannou] away, they’ll say, ‘He’s only an MMA fighter,’ and if he doesn’t, they’ll say, ‘He’s s***.’ So, there’s no real winning, is there?” said Fury about what Joshua is up against in his clash against Ngannou this Friday.
