Gareth A. Davies believes Tyson Fury wasn’t serious when he said he wants a trilogy match against Oleksandr Usyk when he comes out of retirement. He sees Fury (34-2-1, 24 KOs) taking a tune-up and then facing Anthony Joshua.
AJ Clash: Fury’s Real Goal
It makes a lot of sense for Fury, 36, to be going in the direction of a warm-up fight, then his long-awaited mega-fight with Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs). There’s too much money that Fury can make from that fight for him not to take it.
Usyk Trilogy: Money Risk
Fighting Usyk a third time would put that money at risk. If Tyson lost a third time to Usyk, it’s questionable if Turki Alalshikh would want to pay him a goldmine to fight Joshua.
Fury would be seen as an old washed-up fighter, and there would be limited value for a fight between him and AJ. Both are already seen as over-the-hill by fans, but another defeat for Fury would further cement that reality in the minds of the fans.
The last thing they would want to see is one of their old heroes beaten repeatedly and just fighting for money. We saw a similar situation with Evander Holyfield and Roy Jones Jr.
WBA ‘regular’ heavyweight champion Kubrat Pulev has been rumored to be the opponent Fury could fight for his tune-up. Pulev (32-3, 14 KOs) is 44 years old and is seen as a shadow of his former self from over a decade ago. However, he still has excellent technical skills, a great jab, and good size at 6’5″ to give Fury a lot of trouble.
The leaning and mauling that Fury had relied on to beat Deontay Wilder twice likely wouldn’t be effective against Pulev, because he doesn’t have pencil legs.
“Tyson Fury calling out Usyk is a ruse. Tune up, then AJ,” said Gareth A. Davies on talkSport Boxing about his belief that ‘The Gypsy King’ wasn’t serious when saying he wants a trilogy fight with Oleksandr Usyk when he comes out of his brief retirement.