If the winner of Fury v Wilder 3 fights the winner of Joshua v Pulev there will be a lot on the line. Well, let's be clear everything will be on the line. The winner will hold the following titles in the most prestigious weight class in Boxing: WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO, IBO, Ring, Lineal If results go as the bookmakers think it will also be 1 vs 2 in the rankings. There is no bigger fight to be made in boxing and the winner will truly warrant that prized title of 'Undisputed'. So what would or should that winner do? If it were you would you seek to hold and defend each of the alphabet belts? Or is there a smarter, easier path forward? For me, the winner has nothing left to prove in boxing. He's 'the man'. The smart move may be to retire at that point. Fabulously wealthy, the winner of this era's HW's, health intact and legacy secured. The nature of sportsmen however is to carry on, so lets assume they do. What should be their approach? I wouldn't be held hostage by the alphabet belts. I'd either vacate them in one go or one by one. I'd fight as and when I chose and I'd make fights across the world that would build my legacy and my brand. The division could scrap over the belts I'd binned off and if and when a contender managed to unify them he could challenge me for the ultimate title. Would this work or do the champs need the belts to solidify their claim?
Assuming it’s Fury v AJ, l think they will have a re-match. Fury has 3 fights left : Wilder, Joshua twice.
But what about the WBA (regular) which many on this forum regard as a legitimate world title? With the Dillian Whyte vs. Alexander Povetkin bout forthcoming, people are regarding the Russian as a former world champion, having held the WBA (regular) belt.
No Fury has 2 fights left now according to him. Fury vs Wilder 2 was the first of the 3 fights he has left.
I'd love to see Manuel Charr stepping forward at that point and piping up that he was ready to face the holder of the WBA Super, WBC, IBF, etc etc. for undisputed status.
Nurse please wake mr Oquendo up, It's time For his pills and his pudding cup, Take him for a walk as the weather is fine, Then have him in bed not a minute past nine, Tomorrow's a big day it's commonly felt, For Our Fres will be fighting for a wba belt, It's not the first time that a residents roamed far, But the others weren't fighting Manuel char, For a man pushing 80 it's a considerable test, So make sure tonight that he has a good rest,
Just know that AJ is a challenger. The marbles are all Fury's at the present time, given that he lost none of them in the ring. This would be unification in name only. Whatever contrary publicity Matchroom, Sky or DAZN pump out, Joshua himself knows that he's a challenger...if he's internally honest and genuinely prideful, that is. Recall Louis' documented impostor syndrome after becoming champion, knowing he had an unavenged defeat to Schmeling on his ledger; Louis was actually authentic enough in that he had a win over the champ when he was champ, so, if he could doubt his claim and feel that he had yet to achieve true championship status, AJ should be honest enough to do the same. Fury is the man. Bring on his doubter.
I think the winner of Fury vs AJ should fight the Usyk the undisputed CW to cement their legacy further. After that its up to them if they want to continue fighting the other top fighters such Whyte, Parker and Hunter and add to their legacy further or just retire.
I actually would fight all the mandatories one by one. Anything else will be called as ducking or cherrypicking. It could also put pressure on the organisations to rank decent guys as mandatories and make the fights happen. See what WBC made with Whyte. However the undisputed should build legacy and fight all over the world. Promote the sport, accept all challenges, not only focussing on earning more and more cash.
Title defenses is what it’s all about . You always judge by quality of the defenses and longevity to stay champion if one is going down as an all time great . I’d make an exception for Fury if and only if he steps in the ring with AJ ,otherwise he has one proven legit win other then Wilder for bragging rights ,I’d rather him lose to AJ otherwise he cannot claim he’s the best of his era or show show he avoided anyone ,I would consider it a duck like Lewis in the Vitali rematch when Vitali became his mandatory . Wilder has two strikes , A very poor resume and he ducked AJ ,if he retires after he losses to Fury he’s not ATG material , imagine how his career went and going out with 3 strikes to a guy he called pillow fisted while turning down undisputed for 100 million . The heavyweight division has more then enough guys to go around for both AJ and Fury , Whyte ,Usyk ,DDD, Joyce , Hrgovic , Wallin and a few others coming up .
WOW, wow, wow, i`m a huge Klistchko brothers fan, but you can`t compare Fury eventually duck to AJ, to Lewis and Vitali. Firstable Lewis was already old enough and probably past it. Even if he lose in the rematch against Vitali, that does not prove anything, cause Lewis was 37 and in the rematch he will hit 38. He retired at the very right moment, unlike Wladimir Klitschko, who was very much pass it, and still continue to fight, also Klitschko lost his legendary training, and his new "coach" was a complete joke, who obviously help him to aged faster. So the way i see it, Lewis did it right, Wladimir did not. And as far as we are on that topic, Fury duck Klitschko rematch not once, but twice .... And if he beat Joshua(won`t happen), he will 1000000% duck the rematch.