With it looking more and more likely that we will be treated to a third fight between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder this summer, as well as one between Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk, we fight fans are slowly getting over the disappointment of seeing the massive Fury-Joshua fight collapse (for the time being at least).
So with it looking like Fury-Wilder III in July, and then Joshua-Usyk in August, which fight are you most looking forward to seeing? Perhaps you are not at all excited in either fight. Let’s face it unless Wilder has it within him to shock the world with a stunning comeback, we will most likely be seeing something very similar to the second Fury-Wilder fight. In other words, a comprehensive win for Fury in fight-III.
Many fans are cool on this likely third installment in an unexpected trilogy as a result of Fury’s absolute dominance in fight two. There are those who support – and actually believe – Wilder’s claims of having been cheated (you know the list by now – spiked water, tampered gloves, a disloyal trainer…..), and these folks are pumped over the third fight. These guys feel justice will be done in the third fight, with Wilder, their hero, rising from the ashes to reclaim what is still rightly his.
But this aside, the third fight is a tough sell. We will watch it, sure, but will we really get excited about the fight, the way we got excited ahead of Fury and Wilder’s first and second fights?
Will you be more intrigued by the Joshua-Usyk fight? This is of course something new, not two heavyweights going over old ground. Usyk has it all to prove at heavyweight, his brilliance as a cruiserweight not yet having been matched in his two outings up a division. Not too many cruiserweights have been successful in moving up and claiming world honors there too.
Can Usyk do what the great Evander Holyfield did? Does the might of the task Usyk will be trying to ensure you will tune in? Or, like plenty of other fans, do you feel Joshua is simply too big and too powerful, that he will be too much of a heavyweight monster for Usyk?
Of course, all Joshua fights are a big hit, both at the live gate and in terms of PPV numbers. It seems likely the Joshua-Usyk fight will pull in more fans, more money, than Fury-Wilder III will manage
But which fight of the two will turn out to be the most exciting? If we’re lucky, both fights will be exciting, crowd-pleasing battles. It seems both Fury and Joshua will enter the ring as prohibitive favourites to win, though.
Now that these two rival British world heavyweight champions are not fighting each other. Not now, maybe not ever.