Last week, when speaking on Talk Sport, Frank Warren, co-promoter of WBC heavyweight champ Tyson Fury, said that Fury’s next fight was “done” and that it would be announced in a week or two. Warren also teased us with the statement that the fight would prove to be a “game-changer.” Now, if the swirling rumours that are out there are to be believed, the “game-changer” of a fight will be no real fight at all, but instead an exhibition bout, between Fury and MMA star/wannabe boxer Francis Ngannou.
Eddie Hearn, speaking with Boxing Social, spoke about the exhibition being set according to what he has heard, and other outlets have reported how the bout is seemingly on the way.
“Yes, I believe so, this is what I’ve heard,” Hearn said on the subject of it being Fury-Ngannou in exhibition form next. “It will be an exhibition apparently, no knockdowns or anything. I don’t know, I’m only telling you what I’ve heard. Who knows what’s what, but I think that is apparently what is gonna be the next fight. Disappointing, but it is what it is. It’s a big event, but I wanted to see him fight Oleksandr Usyk.”
Many of us fans wanted to see Fury fight Usyk, for all the marbles, in what would have been the first-ever four-belt heavyweight unification clash. Now, instead, we apparently get an exhibition fight from Fury, the so-called greatest fighter ever born from his mother. Is this exhibition, one that will feature a rule that says no knockdowns, really a “game-changer?” I don’t think so. Will the “fight” make money? Of course it will, but it’s a cert that many fans will moan and groan about this being the path Fury wants to take.
What will happen to the WBC heavyweight title, what with Fury not making a mandatory defence? Could Fury even be stripped? Will Fury even retire after he rakes in a bundle from the Ngannou show?
Why this one could not be a real fight, instead of a no knockdown exhibition, is anyone’s guess. But it’s certain plenty of people will have a ‘what’s the point’ attitude going into this one. If it does actually come off as looks to be the case. Is Tyson Fury already retired as far as being a real and genuine world class fighter?
Will we ever get to see that Usyk-Fury fight?