Just who will Tyson Fury fight next? As fight fans wait and see if the Fury-Anthony Joshua fight will get made, rival heavyweight champ Oleksandr Usyk is looking at his next fight.
Initially, after repeating his win over AJ, Usyk said he wants Fury next and nobody else. Now that Fury has apparently moved on from a unification showdown with Usyk (Fury claiming Usyk is running from him, Usyk saying he wants the fight next year), the WBA/IBF/WBO champ is looking elsewhere.
And Usyk has his eyes on Deontay Wilder. Speaking with Ring Magazine, Usyk said that Fury “can fight whoever he likes,” adding how he feels the fans deserve to see the big unification clash but that it is “Fury’s fault, not mine” if it does not happen. And Usyk replied Wilder when asked who he would like to fight next.
Recently, Egis Klimas, manager of the WBA/IBF/WBO heavyweight champ, fired some harsh words at Fury on social media, stating how the WBC champ is “running” from Usyk by calling for a fight with Joshua.
“This is an excellent way to run from Usyk,” Klimas wrote. “Calling out others but not answering Usyk. JOKE!”
Now, if Usyk fights the lethal Wilder, the Ukrainian’s rep will surely be even further enhanced, as risky a fight as one with Wilder is. We must of course wait to see if Wilder can win his ring return against Robert Helenius, but what a fascinating fight Usyk vs Wilder could be.
Fury has previously said he will fight Usyk, but only if he’s paid the staggering feel of £500 million, before he then changed targets and began relentlessly calling out and taunting Joshua. We fans would certainly take a Fury-Joshua fight, and a Usyk-Wilder fight, but we want to see the Fury-Usyk fight just as much as those two fights, if not more so.
Right now, we await developments on the Fury vs. Joshua front, while we might soon be looking forward to a clash between Usyk and Wilder! And in an ideal world, both winners would then get it on in a genuine super fight. If only things were that simple in the sport of boxing.