If anything gets in the way of the massive, mega-fight that is Tyson Fury Vs. Anthony Joshua and prevents it from taking place, it’s likely to be boxing politics. The entire world wants to see this fight, yet one of the obstacles needed to be overcome is Joshua’s WBO mandatory situation. Oleksandr Usyk has made it clear he is not going anywhere, that he will not step aside. Usyk is mandatory for the WBO belt that AJ holds (Joshua also the reigning WBA and IBF champ, also IBO) so Joshua has two choices: give the belt up, or fight Usyk.
But as Eddie Hearn has suggested, maybe the Fury-Joshua fight is one so huge, so important, it could happen with NO belts on the line. Hearn, speaking with DAZN, said that “if you give up one belt, you might as well lose them all.”
in an ideal world, Joshua Vs. Fury would be for all the belts. But if Joshua does drop the WBO title, a fight between he and Fury, who is the WBC and lineal champ, would not be for the undisputed title. So maybe Hearn is on to something – drop ALL belts, says to heck with boxing politics and get this huge, once in a lifetime fight on as a non-title fight. This would of course be an unprecedented move, and quite a brave one. But bottom line, alphabet titles or no, the winner of Fury-Joshua would be universally recognized as THE best heavyweight on the planet. And of course, the lineal title would either stay with Fury or, if Joshua won, he would become the lineal champ.
Imagine if Fury and Joshua agreed to fight for zero belts, instead fighting for honor, for the chance to prove who is the better fighter. We fans would still tune in, all of us, hundreds of thousands of dollars would be saved due to no sanctioning fees being paid, and the winner could then fight Usyk. It’s win win.
If this actually happened it really would be a smack in the face for the governing bodies, and maybe the fans would enjoy that almost as much as the fight. Politics have got in the way of far too many big fights over the years, with so many silly and unneeded mandatories taking precedent over the fight the fans actually wanted to see (and no disrespect to Usyk, he is a fine fighter, but nobody wants to see him fight Joshua anywhere near as much as they want to see Joshua fight Fury.)
Just imagine if Joshua did drop his three belts, and then Fury dropped his belt. The two best in the world could then fight, with the historic lineal title at stake, in a fight the whole world wants to see. It sounds so simple, doesn’t it! Hearn might have come up with a brilliant, revolutionary idea. But it would take some bottle for Team-Joshua and Team-Fury to go ahead and drop their belts.
But as we can all agree, Tyson Vs. Joshua is a fight that is bigger than all the alphabelts combined, as it is a fight that needs none to be on the line for the matchup to be as historic as it is enormous.
And remember, no belt makes a fighter anyway – the fighter makes the belt.