Oleksandr Usyk’s manager, Alex Krassyuk, says he doesn’t want the poor version of WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, who struggled to beat Francis Ngannou last Saturday night when he takes on the unified three-belt champ in December or early 2024.
Fury’s promoters want to postpone his fight with Usyk to allow him to heal from the bumps & bruises from the Ngannou fight. Some believe the real reason to have the fight moved to next year is so that the boxing public would forget about Fury’s poor performance against Ngannou and be more willing to order the fight with Usyk on PPV.
As it is, if they go through with the December 23rd fight, many fans won’t want to buy it because they see Fury as a fake champion and just a washed-up old fat guy who should have a loss on his record against the novice Ngannou.
Krassyuk wants Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) to be at his best when he faces Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs) so that he receives full credit for beating him to become the undisputed heavyweight champion.
What we don’t know is if this IS the best version of Fury, who is now 35 years old and clearly nearing the end of his prime, has been enjoying the fruits of his labor, sitting on a massive fortune estimated by some to be $150 million.
When you’re that wealthy, inactive, and no longer as young or ambitious as you once were, it’s impossible to be your best version.
The Fury squeaked by an old Wladimir Klitschko in 2015 is gone, and he’s not going to defeat Usyk by using the version of himself that grappled his way to a knockout win over Deontay Wilder in 2020 & 2021.
“He wants December 23. We have set up a training camp in Spain. He is focused on December 23,” said Alex Krassyuk to the talkSport Boxing channel about Oleksandr Usyk wanting to stick with the original plan of fighting for the undisputed in December against Tyson Fury.
“It’s not something we agreed to, but if he’s really injured, what can we do?” said Krassyuk about his thoughts on the Fury vs. Usyk fight being moved to early 2024. “We would not like to beat Saturday night’s version of Fury. It brings no benefit and no credits if he beats a man like that.”
It sounds like Usyk has no choice but to wait until next year for the Fury fight to happen because if his management says he needs more time, there’s nothing he can do about it. It’s better that the fight be moved because Fury looked incredibly bad that it would be a mistake to stage it in December.
He needs to lose more weight and figure out how he’s going to try and win because he’s not going to jab his way to a win or lean on Usyk all night as he did against Dillian Whyte, Dereck Chisora and Deotnay Wilder.
“We want Fury to be in his best shape ever. That’s what we want to see because we’re not thinking just about the belts. We’re trying to create history, and the history must be spectacular,” Krassyuk continued.
“Why not?” said Krassyuk when told that Usyk wants Fury to vacate his WBC title if he can’t fight him in December. “Listen, Fury had to vacate the belt a couple of years ago, and we know how this business works. We need him. We need this personality in boxing.
“He’s bringing a lot of attention, and no matter how positive or negative the character is, we all benefit from this. I hate Fury ahead on points on my card,” said Krassyuk when asked about his thoughts on Fury’s controversial win over Francis Ngannou last Saturday night.
“He’s got to say that because he wants the fight with Fury to have some meaning attached to it,” said Simon Jordan about Krassyuk’s comment about Fury winning against Ngannou. “They should actually want the Fury that fought last Saturday night.”
