Tyson Fury has left boxing fans furious in recent days as a fight with Oleksandr Usyk looks increasingly unlikely to happen to moving variables and fluctuating demands, all from Fury seemingly.
He has been accused of ducking the Ukrainian who appears to be doing everything possible to make the fight happen, with fans clearly desperate to see the two best heavyweights in the world going toe-to-toe in the ring.
However, after agreeing to a 70/30 split of the purse in Fury’s favour after originally asking for 40, Fury has then changed the goalposts again, insisting that no rematch clause will be inserted into the fight if he is to sign. This left Fury red-faced when Usyk’s team revealed that it was Fury who asked for the clause originally.
Tyson Fury accused of ‘ducking’ Oleksandr Usyk
Usyk’s promoter, Alexander Krassyuk, admitted that Fury was looking for reasons to swerve and duck the Ukrainian. Usyk immediately accepted the no rematch clause, with Krassyuk admitting he’ll sign anything, he wants this fight.
The Gypsy King is probably the greatest heavyweight of this era, but if he doesn’t step in the ring with a huge fight like Usyk, it will tarnish his legacy slightly. This fight has the chance to put the winner into boxing history.
We haven’t had an undisputed champion in the heavyweight division since 2002, there really is no underselling this fight, it would be absolute huge for this era of boxing regardless of who was victorious in the potential bout.
Fans are losing patience with Fury, thinking he won’t fight Usyk and the Ukrainian is just calling his bluff. A 2018 interview with Joe Rogan may provide us with reasons as to why Fury is apprehensive to fight Usyk, who we’ve seen outbox Anthony Joshua twice despite the huge contrasts in size.
Fury admitted on the show: “Cunningham, believe it or not, this is going to sound strange, Cunningham was the hardest fight I ever did have in my career, amateur or professional. The reason being, he was very slippery.
“The way I explain Cunningham, it was like a conger eel all oiled up in front of me, I couldn’t pin him down! He was light on his feet, he was weighing 208 pounds or something, he was a three-time cruiserweight champion of the world and he stepped up into heavyweights.
“He was a slick, talented boxer and I tried to walk him down, use my size and power, but he’s just outboxing me. What I’m good at, boxing, moving, slipping and sliding, I couldn’t do against Steve Cunningham because he was quicker than me.
“It was like he was a better boxer all round than me, I couldn’t do nothing with him, and he‘d knocked me over even though he was a light puncher supposedly, walked right onto it, came from the back of the hall, big overhand.”
No disrespect to Cunningham, but Usyk is another level of fighter, and if that’s what Fury thought of Cunningham, maybe Usyk’s team are right and he is ducking him, or maybe it’s just classic Fury mind games, let us know what you think.
