Where will each man stand once the dust settles after this week in terms of their historical place within the heavyweight division. For Fury IF he wins he’ll be undeniably proven to be a big fight master performer. He ended Wlad’s historic 11 year run. Yes the fight was a stinker but Fury deserves credit for the game plan and sticking to it. Winning a fight most, myself included believed he would lose even if Wlad was starting to show age. Fury then comes back years later to outbox Wilder but is forced to settle for a draw in a fight he once again was an underdog. In their rematch despite all the evidence of the first fight most people still picked Wilder. Once again Fury proves the doubters wrong and absolutely dismantled Wilder. He then closed the show on the trilogy with another stoppage win where this time Fury showed slippage and lack of dedication from his previous form. The problem with Fury is the lack of activity and often choosing easy fights. There was no need for Chisora 3 or Ngannou. However should he beat the undefeated Usyk - it will be hard to ignore that he has some monumental wins. Ending Wlad’s Run, crushing the undefeated dynamic puncher of his era Wilder 2x, and beating perhaps the best boxer of this generation in the undefeated Usyk. Those are (will be) Huge wins for Legacy. Usyk. What more can be said about this man. He cleaned out a stellar Cruiserweight division against top notch competition all on the road. Huck Germany, Gassiev Russia, Breidis Latvia, Bellew England, Hunter America, Glowacki Poland. Simply Brilliant- with no more mountains to climb at cruiserweight Usyk made the jump to Heavyweight. Where he twice now has boxed a masterclass over the very formidable Anthony Joshua who upon entering the first fight rated no lower than the second best Heavyweight in the world. And upon the rematch no lower than the 3rd. Should Usyk - dethrone the giant Fury giving away a huge difference in height and weight he may rise to mythical levels in the sport. The only drawback with Usyk is the brevity of his career and in particular the heavyweight division. He’ll rate highly in mythical matchups should he win but his body of work will probably be too short to put him too high on an ATG list imo for heavyweight. Either way it will be a great evening for the sport with all 4 belts on the line for first time between two undefeated champions. This fight is HUGE sit back and enjoy.
Fury's legacy cannot be salvages at this point regardless. He lost to am MMA fighter. When Usyk wins, he will be hailed as one of the best to ever do it. If there are some tricks and he loses, he's be remembered as a great cruiser and pretty good heavy who just could not compete against the really big boys.
Usyk will be considered one of the best fighters in the era probably the best Cruiserweight ever and a great heavyweight able to beat much larger fighters. If Fury wins then he'll be considered an ATG Heavyweight perhaps even in the top ten
Maybe I’m being too lenient to Fury but I viewed the Ngannou fight as an exhibition and looking at how Fury looked at fought I have a feeling he treated as such. Still it was an awful look for him and the sport. If Fury rebounds and wins or looks quite competitive he’ll still have fairly remarkable career. Usyk if he wins I agree, there will be no denying him lofty accolades.
1) It wasn't an exhibition, but an official match 2) It did horrific damage to an already struggling sport.
