Tyson Fury has a lot of questions about him going into his undisputed heavyweight championship fight against Oleksandr Usyk this Saturday night in Riyadh.
Doubts Raised After Ngannou Fight
The way that WBC heavyweight champion Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) performed in his last fight against Francis Ngannou last October, winning a controversial 10-round split decision against the novice, has people wondering if he’s over the hill at 35.
Anthony Joshua destroyed Ngannou in two rounds, making it look even more obvious that Fury is washed up or he was never that good to begin to win, and the sheep that follow Tyson failed to look at who he actually has beaten in the last nine years.
A Thin Resume
The only two decent wins on Fury’s resume since 2015 are Wladimir Klitschko and Deontay Wilder. It’s hard to believe that Fury has cruised through nine years and made massive money without fighting anyone else notable.
You have to give Fury’s promoters a lot of credit for building him into a star without needing to match him against talented opposition. It’s sad at the same time because it shows how easily fans are fooled.
Unfair but Inevitable Comparisons
“Tyson Fury has to answer a lot of questions. There are not that many questions on Usyk’s shoulders going into this fight,” said Ariel Helwani to DAZN Boxing, talking about the questions about Tyson Fury on whether he’s still got it going into his undisputed championship match on Saturday night against Oleksandr Usyk.
“Given how he looked looked, and how he fought against Francis [Ngannou], if he slips on a banana peel here, everyone is going to re-write. I don’t think it’s fair, but just re-write the whole story about his reign and his career.”
It’s perfectly fair that people are raising questions about Fury, and will feel they were fooled all along if he loses to Usyk. They should have been asking these questions a long time ago when Fury failed to step it up against better opposition after his three fights against Deontay Wilder.
In Fury’s last three fights, he’s been padding his record against lower-level opposition, fighting Dillian Whyte, Dereck Chisora, and Ngannou. In 2018, Fury fought Otto Wallin. He’s been padding his record, and his fans haven’t put his feet to the fire to pressure him to fight better opposition.
“It’s happening already. When [Deontay] Wilder lost to Parker, everyone said, ‘Wilder is trash.’ He beat that guy and got no credit for it,” said Ade Oladipo.
“It’s not fair, but it happens all the time, and I feel there’s a lot more on his shoulders than Usyk’s shoulders,” said Ariel.
“Tyson Fury has had so many injuries to where he now has to come out on the side of this because if you don’t, everyone is going to say, ‘This has always been your pattern.’ You’re pattern finally caught up to you,” said Shawn Porter. “I think this is a big one. There’s a lot of pressure on Tyson Fury.”
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