Fury's comments on Usyk

Fury trashes all of his rivals so you have to take what he says with a pinch of salt. He has compared Usyk to LHW and cruiser champ Adamek, called Usyk a "pumped-up middleweight" (Usyk fought at 75 KG as a young amateur) and claimed he lost or drew with Chisora. But Fury has also said far more positive things about Usyk and things which suggest he knows that Usyk is a formidable challenge:

1. Fury referred to Usyk as "the Ukrainian master" in an interview after Usyk had beaten AJ and has predicted that Usyk will beat AJ again in a rematch, if it happens. I can't conceive of Fury referring to Adamek as "the Polish master": I suspect Fury is aware that Usyk got the better of Wlad in sparring before Wlad-Fury, whereas Adamek was totally dominated by a 40+ Vitali, who did not age as well as Wlad or have his speed, co-ordination, power or experience.

2. In another interview, Fury referred to Usyk as a "big awkward southpaw" who “punches harder than people think”, in stark contrast to the "pumped-up middleweight" and “featherfist” jibes. At 6'3 and 221 lbs, the mature Usyk isn't a big heavyweight by modern standards but he's far more "big" than he is a "middleweight".

3. "Usyk is a southpaw, clever, technically very good. He’s smaller as a former cruiserweight champion but he handled Derek Chisora, who is physically tougher than Joshua." Very different to his claims of Usyk losing to Chisora.

4. “Oleksandr Usyk. He’s an awkward-looking guy, southpaw, a unified [undisputed cruiserweight] world champion, an undefeated world champion, so maybe he can be my next, toughest challenge.” - 2019

5. "Until he fights a real fighting man you can’t call him a champion. All roads lead to me; I’m the ‘Gypsy King’. If he can beat me I’d say he’s a good man. But if he can’t I’ll still say he’s useless.” This is a funny comment but also revealing: "if he can beat me" suggests that Fury is open to the possibility; he thinks that Usyk might be good enough to outbox him, rather than just giving Usyk the proverbial puncher's chance that he claims every heavyweight has.

6. "Believe it or not, this is gonna sound strange – Cunningham was the hardest fight I ever did have in my whole career, amateur or professional." If we're talking about a non-green but pre-comeback Fury then it was definitely his hardest fight at the time: knocked down, deducted a point and behind on two of the scorecards after 6 rounds, though Fury was dancing and geeing up the crowd in between rounds, didn't take Cunningham seriously before the fight and didn't have his felonious ex-trainer in his corner for his U.S. debut. While this was 2013, it's likely that Fury (who is better in many respects but slower now) would still have problems with someone of Cunningham's dimensions who was even better. Fury said in an interview back before he turned pro that he found small guys to be awkward opponents until he caught them but Usyk is undefeated and more durable than Cunningham.

7. "Everyone has problems with southpaws" - another comment from a random Fury interview that I recall. Fury also knows that he had a difficult night with southpaw Wallin, albeit partly as a result of underestimation, losing too much weight and being cut badly over his right eye from the 3rd round.

8. Fury praised Adam Smith for contradicting Johnny Nelson's ridiculous and resentful claim that Usyk is an "average southpaw" and Fury agreed with Smith's assessment that Usyk is a "fantastic southpaw".

 

Not really, Fury was trashing Usyk in the last couple of days. But Fury plays a lot of games and is psychologically erratic, so you have to read between the lines. He knows that Usyk is an elite fighter and Usyk knows that Fury knows he's an elite fighter.

 

If Usyk gets past AJ again, Fury needs to fight him or he risks sharing the era rather than owning it. If Fury retires, Usyk beats AJ again and goes on to beat whoever has the WBC belt, he's undisputed and will have stolen Fury's thunder to a significant degree. However, Fury has a lot more to lose from the Usyk fight as most expect the much bigger Fury to win. Fury may feel that he's lost a step with age, wear and the abuse he's done to his body or maybe it's just Fury saying things for effect. I hope Fury doesn't retire because Fury-Usyk for undisputed is the most intriguing matchup in boxing and it would do a lot for the winner's legacy.

 

I think he means that Usyk will be 36 by the time we see the fight, if we see it. It's difficult to say who has more miles on the clock: Usyk is 1.5 years older, has 10x the number of amateur bouts at 350 and 6 semi-pro but Fury has 13 more pro fights and at HW rather than CW, plus the junk food, booze, drugs etc. Furthermore, they still have at least one more fight to get through, which will add more miles on the clock for both men but not the same number. Smaller heavyweights also tend to age worse than bigger heavyweights as their game is more based on speed, agility and stamina than strength, size and power, with the former attributes deteriorating more quickly than the latter.

 

If Usyk schools AJ again then 3 losses in his last 5 fights AJ will be irrelevant to Fury's legacy. Usyk, Wilder x3 away and Wlad away compares favourably with the top 5 wins of any heavyweight in history.