Fury was never that good.

As for why Fury ducked Ustinov.

It is all there in those paranoid rambling about being stitched up by Klitschko. We know that Fury was obsessed with Wlad (remember the sauna story lol), so it is safe to say he would have been training and considering how to beat him for years. And with Ustinov being a last minute replacement he couldn't use the game plan they had likely prepared for Chisora. So, even if he beat Ustinov, from his paranoid rant it sounded very much like he didn't want Wlad to see how he would approach fighting a guy of similar dimensions.

I give Fury full credit for his win in Germany, but it might have been a bit harder to bamboozle Wlad if Klitschko had an inkling of how Fury was planning to approach the fight. We can see toward the end of the fight Wlad started to figure Fury out and take it to him. I also suspect this is in partly why Klitschko was desperate for the rematch, and Fury ran from it (that and the PEDs and mental health of course). Let's face it, he is a bit of a ****-house for not giving Wlad the rematch after the length of Klitschko's reign.

 

Great summary, but I think in fairness to fringe-contender Artur Szpilka, he also demonstrated how to go about Wilder. The Pole was taking it to Wilder throughout, and comfortably winning the fight, unfortunately he has a chin that would make Amir Khan blush.