If shot Fury beats peak Usyk, where does he rank?

I am the original Wilder hater. You've convinced me. But it was a big fight to be had at the time. You said it: hindsight.

 

In terms of the thread's question, these types of hypothetical are of little value.

What we can suggest instead is that, should Fury beat Usyk in their rematch, he solidifies himself as the generational number one with wins over Wlad, Wilder x3, and Usyk to regain the lineal championship (as well as a body of work outside of these top-tier wins). If Usyk beats Fury again, he will likely claim that spot.

A heavyweight legacy is defined by what is achieved in the heavyweight division --- Usyk's cruiserweight success, while noteworthy for that division, doesn't factor into his heavyweight ranking.

 

If fury beats usyk it’s 1-1 he doesn’t leapfrog usyk who has already beat him and deserves a trilogy to settle the score

 

Before the introduction of steroids into boxing all fighters were done at the elite p4p level by 35. HWs were in their prime from mid 20s to early 30s. It's only after everybody started roiding that fighters started to age like wine.

 

Yeah - He does - Because, at that point, he has the better wins overall.

Not saying a trilogy would not be in the offing but, if Fury won, only to retire then and there, he'd be the generational number-1.

 

Guarantee you if Fury fought Dubois, Cojimar would accuse him of ducking Joshua. This guy's a clown.

 

Because of Furys size beating Usyk isn't going to do anything for him. While Fury lost the first fight he clearly showed that he was capable of beating Usyk. Actually doing it isn't going to tell us anything we didn't know. If Fury destroys Usyk people are going to say "Fury aged him out" and Usyk wasn't the same and if he barely beats him that changes nothing.

Fury would get back into the "no unavenged losses" club with Tunney, Ali and Lennox Lewis. But Fury was undefeated before his last fight he isn't gaining anything really he didn't already have there.

This fight is for all the marbles in THIS era. I don't see it moving the needle historically because the 4 best resumes of this era are awful historically.

 

If Fury beats a prime Usyk, he deserves extra credit for inventing a time machine and travelling back in time to when Usyk was actually in his prime

 

And he would deserve a lot of props for getting down to cruiserweight too!

 

You beat me too it...lol

 

So Fury is shot? Just when was his prime? Ok even if he’s not shot but slightly past his his prime? Again, when was his prime?

 

When he beat chisora in the rematch, Hammer and Wlad

Barley took a punch in all 3 fights and that was a prime chisora

 

Fury wouldn't be beating prime Usyk but Usyk didn't beat prime Fury. So it's about even in terms of wear and tear. If Fury beats Usyk you can argue it's like beating prime Usyk because they're both over the hill.

If Fury does it it's pretty impressive under the circumstances, especially given his terrible trainer and team.

We would know that he's better than his HW peers and pretty even with Usyk, an 'ATG' talent, though undersized at HW.

That's not bad.

We have to add that beating Wilder x3 is definitely impressive despite Wilder's limitations. It's become a ridiculous myth now that Wilder wasn't dangerous into his mid 30s just because he's now old and shot. The fact AJ and Hearn avoided that fight so long proves how dangerous they thought he was.

AJ's ducking of both Wilder and Fury has in the end hurt Fury's resume. Because if Wilder KO'd AJ which was definitely a realistic outcome especially if they'd fought a few times, and AJ had fought Fury and lost, another real possibility, then Fury's resume would look pretty good to people. But AJ was so desperate to protect his record that he literally avoided Wilder for his whole prime and Fury too. It's amazing to think that people still don't believe that. A few years is one thing, but AJ is now post-prime and he still hasn't fought them. He's the one who always had the most money behind him and could make these things happen.

He undeniably scuttled the Fury fight twice (Fury's comeback 50/50 offer then the December fight) and the Wilder fight twice (first when it was 'planned' but he chose to fight Wallin, then when Wilder called him out after the Parker loss and they acted like he wasn't a legit opponent anymore). There are likely more events we don't know about.

 

So you can argue Usyk beat prime Fury?

Quick reminder that AJ signed to fight both Fury and Wilder. So you're just straight up lying. Not to mention, Wilder admitted he ducked AJ in 2019.