Talks for the Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk heavyweight undisputed championship fight are reportedly building for a match between them in 2024 in Saudi Arabia.
Thus far, the 35-year-old Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs) doesn’t seem to care whether the fight with Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs) happens, but he changes his tune if the Saudis offer him a lot of money because seems to be the main issue for Tyson to overcome his reluctance to make that fight.
Fury vs. Usyk is “heating up,” claims Mike Coppinger, whose sources say there’s “lots of optimism’ for a fight next year between them in Saudi Arabia.
Whether his sources are correct about it remains to be seen because Tyson views the Usyk fight as seemingly unimportant, as he’s excited about his 10 round match against novice boxer Francis Ngannou (0-0) on October 28th.
The Saudis are rumored to be paying Fury $50 million for that fight, which, if true, is an enormous amount of money for him to be fighting a guy who would likely lose to journeyman boxers.
Fury is arguably being spoiled by the Saudis, who may inadvertently destroy what’s left of the little ambition that he still has by giving him so much money for a mismatch.
You can’t blame Fury if he doesn’t want to fight the likes of Usyk or Anthony Joshua because if he can make big bucks fighting the likes of Ngannou & Jon Jones, why risk your ego, pride & health taking risky fights against boxers that could potentially beat him?
“It’s always been somebody else’s priority. ‘Road to undisputed,'” said Tyson Fury to Fight Hub TV about his ambivalence about a fight against Oleksandr Usyk.”I think Francis Nganou is going to be a tougher challenge than all these other guys.”
If the Fury-Usyk fight comes off, fans will get to see for themselves who the #1 heavyweight on the planet is.
That fight would give the illusion of proving who the best fighter is in the division, but it probably won’t show who the true #1 guy is because both fighters are getting old.
Fury hasn’t done anything since his win over Deontay Wilder two years ago in 2021, and even then victory, it wasn’t anything special.
Wilder looked flawed, bulky and ran out of gas after dropping Fury twice in round four. Many fans believe Fury was given a long count by the referee, which saved him from being knocked out.
With two years away from fighting quality opposition, Fury would have problems against the top heavyweights in the division at this point. Usyk is a good fighter, but there are arguably better heavyweights than him that would give Fury massive problems and likely beat him.
