Fury has retired because he doesn’t want to fight Usyk as he knows he is a stylistic nightmare for him, his ‘retirement’ falls solely on who wins the AJ Usyk fight, if AJ pulls it off, he’s back for the mega fight undisputed biggest HW fight for decades etc, if Usyk wins he says I’d have beat him anyway he’s a blown up middleweight etc, will still go down as the best of his era. The whole ‘I don’t care where they place me in history’ is a lie, Fury has always been a heavyweight historian and from day one has talked about going down as one of the greatest of all time, he doesn’t want to risk the public opinion of him by getting outboxed by Usyk
Whilst I do think Fury wants to fight AJ and not Usyk I would make Fury the favourite in either fight.
I’d make him a big favourite against AJ and a fairly solid underdog against Usyk, I just can’t see a situation where Fury isn’t 4 or 5 rounds down at the half way stage and has a mountain to climb, I doubt he’s stopping Usyk either, he’s not Dillian Whyte and he won’t knackered and infront of Fury to tee off on him like Wilder was
I don’t think Fury has retired because of Usyk but I definitely think he sees it as a very hard fight and therefore the lack of appeal to him has contributed to his decision to retire. Put it this way, if someone like Pudding Ruiz or Charles Martin was holding the belt, you can guarantee that Fury would take the undisputed fight, even if mentally he wanted to retire. Because it would be so easy for him.
I think if Usyk looks amazing in the Joshua rematch there's a good chance Fury will stay retired. If Joshua wins or Usyk scrapes through I can see Fury ready to jump straight back in the ring. For me Usyk is all wrong for Fury. You aren't gonna beat Fury on size as he is the biggest around. However, movement and skill wise Fury doesn't come close to Usyk
The Lineal World Heavyweight Champion is the one to beat and until that time, remains the favourite over the rest. Posted before Tony Dosh PPV was humiliated in New York that I thought Wilder was the most dangerous test amongst the current crop but Usyk moving up to heavyweight brought a style that may beat Fury if he could deal with the size difference. Always thought English Puddings Whyte, Chisora and Fringe Pudding Joshua were an easy night's work for Fury if he could get back to 80% of the man that faced Wlad in Dusseldorf. Fury v Usyk is the fight boxing needs next.
