Tyson Fury won’t be fighting former IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr next due to final demands. WBC champion Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs) still plans on getting a summer fight in to prepare him for a possible undisputed clash for the undisputed championship against IBF, WBA & WBO champ Oleksandr Usyk in December in Saudi Arabia.
Zhilei Zhang is an option for Fury if a step-aside deal can be worked out so that the two-time Olympian can get Joe Joyce to move out of the way. Joyce has activated the rematch clause in his contract for his fight against Zhang (25-1-1, 20 KOs) for their bout last month on April 15th.
Zhang stopped Joyce in six rounds in a one-sided fight. Although Joyce has activated his rematch clause, it’s believed that he did it to try and get a step-aside deal from the big 6’6″, 270+ lb Zhang.
Other than that, it serves no purpose in Joyce to risk his career by fighting Zhang in an immediate rematch because it’s a wrong style match-up for him, and if he loses to the powerful southpaw, his career would be finished for all intents and purposes.
Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs) would be courageous to defend against Zhang because the Chinese fighter is more powerful, fast, and technically skilled.
Moreover, all the mauling that Fury now uses to win his fights probably won’t work against Zhang because he’s stronger physically than him and weighs roughly the same but without all the useless adipose tissue that the Gypsy King carries on his frame.
There’s no word about how much Ruiz (35-2, 22 KOs) was asking for or how serious Fury was in facing him in a stadium fight in July. However, it’s logical to assume that the interest from Team Fury in using Ruiz as a warm-up opponent was lukewarm because of the inherent risks a match of that could involve.
Fury’s punch resistance isn’t exactly the greatest, and with Ruiz’s hand speed & power, there’s an excellent chance that Tyson would visit the canvas twice or thrice in a fight with him. Unlike Deontay Wilder, if Ruiz puts Fury down, he won’t immediately gas and let him off the hook.
If Fury gets off the canvas, he’d be buried with an avalanche of punches from Ruiz, and that would be the end of his Saudi dreams of fighting Usyk in December.
Fury has had rotten luck lately when setting up fights against quality opposition, with him now failing to put together a contest with Ruiz that makes three consecutive big fights that he’s failed to negotiate.
Fury’s failed negotiations:
- Oleksandr Usyk
- Anthony Joshua
- Andy Ruiz Jr