IBF is expected to order Usyk vs. Hrgovic as an immediate mandatory

He will have, but you gotta remember something else: Fury will have slowed quite a bit as well, and his slowing is gonna be a lot harsher. His Chisora performance was terrible compared even to the fight he had just eight months prior. He won every single round yes, even the ones he took off, but he did not look like quite like himself doing it, and that was against a guy who clearly showed up with no intentions of winning. If this trend continues, and I believe it will, I'm expecting Fury to win in a shutout victory against Ngannou for sure, but I'm also expecting he'll get tagged a good bit more than people are anticipating, assuming Ngannou is showing up to try for at least a little bit. It won't be as much wear and tear on his body as Usyk will get from Hrgovic and Zhang/Joyce, but Fury will take care of that outside of the ring with his bad lifestyle.

I used to see this as a fairly even fight with a lean toward Fury and a strong hope for Usyk, but after taking a good bit of time to analyze their fights over the last few years, I'm firmly in the "Usyk has the better chance" camp. I can't be 100% since this is boxing and you can never truly know til they're in the ring together, but I'd say I'm more 60-40 at this point. Only way I see it being different is if Usyk takes more damage than I'm expecting in the Hrgovic and Zhang/Joyce fights or ages faster than I think he will. Those are always possible of course, but I feel good in saying our boy has got this, and no amount of Warren trickery will be enough to save Fury

On another note that leans toward the fight not happening, I feel like Usyk is gonna fight his remaining two mandatories and then try to make a fight with Fury again, and if that fails to happen he'll either fight someone else before trying one more before retirement or just say "**** it" and retire then. He seems like a guy who wants to retire from the sport and not be retired by it and who is smart enough to know when to stop. I think he'd be okay with hanging up his gloves knowing he tried his damndest to make the undisputed fight happen while fighting every guy put in front of him in the meantime. Not my favorite way for the saga to end, but at least Fury doesn't get what he wants and Usyk gets a decently respectable streak of defenses before retiring. AJ-Dubois-Hrgovic-Zhang/Joyce might not be the absolute greatest of all time string of victories, but considering what all Usyk had to give up it's not a bad gauntlet to get through.

 

I quite like Hrgovic but he looks disinterested for half of the time he is in the ring. Any talk of Usyk not being able to cope with his pressure is absolutely nonsensical

 

Looking forward to hearing the cries Usyk is the greatest heavyweight of all time after he beats Hrgovic.

 

He kinda did look good against Chisora, but I feel like he only looked good because Chisora did precisely **** all in that fight, in terms of turning in a genuine effort. I'm willing to admit, it might be me remembering wrong, but I remember watching the fight and thinking Fury didn't look quite right, not as fast or fluid. For a minute I thought maybe he just wanted to get rounds in, but it seems like he was trying to actually get Chisora out of there as early as the second or third round and just not having any success in that regard. I actually came into this fight rooting for Fury to win and look great doing it, too. Didn't want the potential Usyk fight derailed just cause something lucky landed; barely anything did land, and it still didn't happen

Man, that would be hilarious. All this time avoiding Usyk and then he gets caught with a lucky punch from a no hoper. Fury might genuinely go on a big bender that lands him in prison

You make excellent points in regards to the training camps taking a lot out of him and the big punchers doing more damage than he's used to, but I believe the way Fury abuses himself and his own aging will "even the playing field" in that regard, so to speak, if not be even worse. Fury's getting about that age where bad habits and weight fluctuations really start to catch up with folks and it seems like it's started to a bit. Assuming that turns out to be the case, this fight could sadly end up being less a question of "Can an excellent small man beat a great big man?" than "Can a badly degraded excellent small man beat a horribly degraded great big man?" because of all the damn stalling.

It sucks that Usyk won't get the proper credit for these three mandatories, at least among the casual fanbase. But the way I look at it, guys like us will be able to appreciate the context of the victories. Even if Usyk doesn't get to face Fury like we all want him to, he'll at least be able to show he's able to take on a wide variety of styles against big punchers with a variety of different weight advantages over him. Some might try to take away from those wins ("Dubois quit," "Hrgovic has looked horrible recently," "Zhang has an awful gas tank," "Joyce is horribly slow"), and yeah none of them will probably ever be regarded as all time greats, but when you consider all the factors it's still a pretty good string of defenses. Not my preferred way of him wrapping up his career, but if it does end that way it's a good run all the same

 

Usyk is a fighting man. I've no doubt he will face Hrgovic if ordered.

 

He did look alright, but given that Chisora put in such a bare minimum effort it came across as similar to that vid someone posted the other day of Fury punching a guy in training, who wasn't blocking his body or moving; looked good, but let's see how it translates to someone who wants to fight back. I even think the performance against Whyte was miles better, and I think the Wallin fight was better than that. Wilder II trumps all of them of course, but I doubt we'll ever see that apex predator again, and it's a damn shame cause it was mighty fun to watch even knowing how it would turn out. Similar to how you noted Usyk is on the decline, it seems to me Fury is as well, and because of past habits I got a feeling it will end up being much more drastic. Could be wrong though, and if I am I'll be more than happy to own up to it, but I'm very curious to see how he performs next time out.

That last point is something I feel like a lot of people unfortunately disregard when talking about Usyk. Aside from folks who'll disregard everything he does, I feel like some don't quite have a grasp on how big a leap it is and just what he's giving up for these fights. It would be like if Inoue announced he was moving up to 147 and fought Alexis Rocha. Is he an all time great? No, and I doubt he ever will be, but he is younger, has a longer reach and would have the advantage of being in his natural weight class; overcoming all of that would make the win mighty impressive regardless of if the guy is gonna be a hall of famer or not. Shame he'll never get the proper kudos for those, but at least some folks will see it

 

Very good fight for December. Usyk will be active and it's good for a fight against fury in april;-)

Usyk was very inactive the last years.
He will clearly decision hrgovic, but it won't be as easy as dubious.

Usyk will be on point against fury then

 

Fury is the only roadblock for years now. He refuses to fight live bodies.

 

That's the thing, I don't get the complaints about Hrgovic (from non-partisan fans anyway). He is universally regarded as a top 10 HW. Undefeated, decorated amateur, 31 years old. Taking his 0 would be good on any resume.

But Dubois is on par with Charr.

 

This is bull****. Fury gets to fight cans and a freak show while Usyk has to fight his mandatories. Fury is a coward and needs to be stripped.