Boxing pundit Gareth A. Davies thinks Tyson Fury won’t face Anthony Joshua if he’s victorious in his rematch with undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk in October.
Gareth doesn’t say why he thinks Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) will walk away from the sport rather than stay around to fight Joshua to give the British fans the fight they’ve been calling for.
Fury’s Track Record
It doesn’t make much sense to me for Fury to hang up his gloves without picking up the enormous payday against AJ. Who knows, Fury could fall off the wagon after a win over Usyk and eat himself to the point where he can’t come back.
We saw Fury do that after win over 40-year-old Wladimir Klitschko in 2015, and that guy was washed up. Usyk is still in his prime, more or less, so Fury might really celebrate like a madman if he’s victorious in the rematch.
The decision of whether to fight Joshua or not could be taken out of Fury’s hands if he loses the rematch with Uysk and that’s the likely outcome. Fury looked horrible last Saturday night in his 12-round split decision loss to Usyk in Riyadh, and going off of that performance, he’s not going to win the rematch unless it’s a controversial decision.
Davies Laments a Potential Missed Opportunity
“If Fury beats Uysk in the second fight, I don’t think he’ll do the fight with Joshua. I think he’ll walk away,” said boxing pundit Gareth A. Davies to iFL TV when asked if he believes Tyson Fury will fight Anthony Joshua.
“It would be a travesty if we don’t get that fight. It’s a fight that we’ve wanted for five years. I think if Fury completes the win against Usyk, I think we’ll see Usyk fight Joshua. I think Usyk wins again.
“I think Usyk and Fury had the hardest fight of their careers. No question” said Gareth on whether the Fury-Usyk fight took a lot out of them physically. “Half the people are going to argue that Fury did deserve it. Half the people are going to believe Usyk did deserve it.”
I don’t know what Gareth is talking about. Half of the fans don’t believe Fury deserved the win over Usyk. Where did get that junk?
If anything, it might be that 1% of the people think Fury won, and those are his supporters. The rest of the world views the fight as a slam dunk win for Usyk, and they collectively believe he deserved to win by ninth-round knockout.
Fury’s Decline
“I’ve never seen him hurt like that, and I just wonder if there’s signs of aging in him now. He’s 36 in August. He’s been a very big man. He’s ballooned from ten stone to 29 stone,” said Gareth about Fury. “That will have had an effect on his body at some point, the collateral effect on his body.”
If Gareth had watched Fury’s last fight against Francis Ngannou, he would have seen that he’s gotten old, and is operating at roughly 50% capacity to the fighter that beat Klitschko. He can no longer move or defend himself, his speed is gone, and his punch resistance is at zero. The Gypsy King is shot. I know it’s a bitter pill for Fury’s fans to swallow, but that’s the cold, hard reality.
Fury was knocked cold by Deontay Wilder in their first fight, and he was clearly more hurt in that fight than he was against Usyk. The referee didn’t stop either fight, though, and they sure should have. Being popular obviously helps.
“There will be people that will say, ‘You don’t need to go back. Your legacy is secure,’ but I do think he’ll want that second fight with Usyk,” said Gareth.
Read the full article here
