The Joshua/Uysk narrative has completely derailed the Fury/Wilder narrative. If Fury chickens out...

...he has no legacy whatsoever. Not even a top 25 guy.

The narrative fracture began before Fury was a thing....with Wilder being the WBC company champion based on his wins against medically unfit opponents like Stivern, and bums like Molina and Szpilka. But no one believed it. Klitschko was the champ, and that was all there was to it.

After Fury abandoned the title due to drug use, and Joshua picked it up, cementing his position by also beating Klitschko, the two narratives became a thing, with all of us taking sides. You either believed that Joshua was the champ by taking Fury's spot and beating Martin, Klitschko, Povetkin, Parker, and splitting with Ruiz. All this time, Whyte, whom Joshua had already beaten, was making a serious case as a major contender.

Or, you believe that Wilder was the champ, his claim to fame being beating Ortiz twice, who was sold as the division boogey man, to tough for Joshua.

Of course, they never met, and the narrative mutated when Usyk decisively defeated Joshua twice, and Fury took Wilder's spot. That led us to today, when we are still trying to make Usyk-Fury.

But one narrative has now solidly defeated the other. With Parker's trouncing of Wilder, and Joshua beating what is arguably Fury's fourth best opponent on the same night, the Joshua-Parker-Ruiz-Whyte-Povetkin line has buried the Wilder-Ortiz-Fury line, and this at a time when Fury has cast doubt on himself by losing to a novice.

Fury cannot chicken out. He must show up in February and at least lose credibly, or else he is not much different from a Rahmen or Corrie Sanders, who caught lighting in a bottle, but never developed a very good overall career.