1. Career highest payday 2. Massive status/legacy fight 3. No promotional hurdles to overcome 4. Fury loves to prove the naysayers wrong and rub it in their faces 5. Fury wants to further upstage and immiserate AJ and Hearn by beating their conqueror, who stole Fury's thunder in that regard 6. Fury doesn't want to be known forever as the giant, self-proclaimed “Gypsy King/warrior” who ducked a "featherfisted tap dancing middleweight" 7. Fury wants to be the national hero who did what the "big stiff useless hypejob bodybuilding dosser" could not and bring the belts back home from the Ukraine once again 8. Fury doesn't fear defeat as many do and relishes a challenge 9. Fury firmly believes that he will beat Usyk, who compared to Fury struggled against their sole mutual opponent Chisora and only beat AJ by 8-4 and 7-5 margins on the official cards
I think Fury in even his most unhinged state knows that skipping this fight will badly hurt his legacy. Chances are it will happen. Imo it would be on par with Bowe not fighting Lewis.
Some good points, but I'm not quite sure about this fight and will wait to see it if actually happens. Just to play Devil's Advocate: 1. Fury has been making excuses not to fight Usyk from the beginning (size, not enough money, doesn't need him ...) That is unlike Wlad and Wilder and also AJ, who Fury was very vocal about wanting to fight and also describing many times how he was going to smash them etc. His behaviour around Usyk suggests that at least part of him is trying to avoid the match-up, since he might view it as a genuine risk without the reward he wants. Fury has already had the other belts so he can convince himself he doesn't need the unification. He can also convince himself Usyk won't get him the credit Wlad or Wilder wins will. 2. Not sure the fight is actually as big financially as the Wilder fights (because ESPN blew huge money on them) and likely not as big as the AJ fight either, even now. The prestige is different to the actual fanbase/sales. Who knows. 3. Who will be willing to pay the fees that Fury might be demanding? At a certain point people won't and Fury might use this as a way of pricing himself out. If both are going to retire afterwards, why invest in these 'brands' any more? 4. Fury has been talking retirement for a while, pressure from wife etc., and it's likely much more real now because he is mid 30s and the end is in sight. He might feel he's losing motivation and some fire to train and perform and so it's possible he decides to go out on top rather than risk a loss because his heart isn't in it any more. This is basically what Froch did at the end, he wanted to fight on but also knew he didn't really have the drive after the Groves fight and so walked away.
I appreciate a well put opposing case. The first serious comment I saw Fury make on Usyk was from 2019 when he said that Usyk may be his "next toughest challenge" despite there being no need to mention Usyk, so Fury's not been adamant in not fighting him. Fury didn't care about fighting Usyk when the best HW on his record was Witherspoon or Chisora. Now he's beaten AJ x2 there is money and prestige in fighting him, as there was with long-reigning Wlad and Wilder, so Fury's interested. Fury has talked about smashing Usyk, including in January this year: “You know what I can’t believe? That AJ has gone and given Ukraine all the heavyweight belts back after all my hard work of relieving them. You big, useless dosser. You’ve let a little steroid man come up from middleweight and set about you, and take all your belts. But it’s gonna have to take a real British Lancaster bomber like me to go and relieve the useless little sted head of the belts and get them back to Britain. You useless dossers. Honestly, bring them to me – the Gypsy King, bring them to me. I’ll put them in their place, relieve them of the belts again.” Fury knows that not fighting Usyk will be almost universally perceived as a duck and that there is a massive legacy benefit from being undisputed. I don't see any way Fury can convince himself that the Usyk fight is no big deal, take it or leave it. It's not as big financially as the AJ fight but it's still likely a career highest payday due to Saudi money, the prestige/profile of the bout and the risk involved for the two 13 year unbeaten champions. I also suspect that Fury will be willing to stick around for the AJ fight for even more money, provided AJ doesn't lose again in the next 12 months or so and becoming undisputed will strengthen Fury's hand at the negotiating table in all future bouts. Fury's wife has little to no say in the matter, that's just Fury's PC posturing. His wife was very unconvinced that he was retiring after Whyte, she was adamant that he'd return for undisputed, as was Tyson's dad. Fury was able to get motivated for weak chinned plodder Whyte, he'll definitely be able to motivate himself for a potentially much more dangerous and definitely higher quality opponent (AJ's conqueror to boot) for all the HW marbles.
It’s obviously going to happen, and it will happen in the Middle East in 2023. There are zero roadblocks that will prevent the fight from happening. The Saudis will provide a huge site fee and line both fighters’ pockets, and both Fury and Usyk are happy with 50-50, so the purse (which is usually the biggest hurdle in any super fight negotiation) is not a problem. What else could be a hurdle? Whose name comes first on the poster? Obviously Fury’s will, and I doubt Usyk cares about that. There aren’t any promotional/network divides either, Usyk is a network free agent, and Krassyuk has a good relationship with Arum, Top Rank and the people at ESPN from working with them over Loma (who IS a Top Rank fighter). The fight will happen with 100% certainty.
The fight will happen Fury has taken some soft touches on occasion and talks smack, but he did dethrone Wlad away from home and took on wilder x3 in the states He will fight usyk and imo beat him I like both guys so I don't mind who wins and I would rather they lose to eachother than anyone else A draw would be good lol
