Your thoughts on Usyk-Fury 2, Floyd Schofield, Katie Taylor, Jaron Ennis, Bam Rodriguez and Errol Spence

In this
week’s mailbag, we tackle a pair of topics related to the Tyson Fury-Oleksandr
Usyk rematch (Fury’s legacy and his best possible strategy); a pair of your
takes on Floyd Schofield following the lightweight contender’s most recent
victory; plus letters about Katie Taylor being the gold standard of women’s
boxing, Jaron Ennis being a disappointment at welterweight, Jesse Rodriguez
being relegated to the sidekick role underneath other fighters, and whether
Errol Spence has again set himself up for failure.

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featured in the mailbag? Comment or ask a question in the comments section
below. Submissions may be edited for length and clarity. We also may select
readers’ comments from other BoxingScene stories.

TYSON
FURY’S LEGACY WILL BE DECIDED BY OLEKSANDR USYK REMATCH RESULT

It’s going to be very, very
heavily weighted for calculating Tyson Fury’s place among his fellow
heavyweight greats. A very, very important fight for his legacy.

Being bounced off the floor like
a basketball by Deontay Wilder, holding the linear title hostage due to
inactivity, playing around with a harmless MMA champion, and dropping a
squeaker to the skilled and resourceful Oleksandr Usyk can all be overlooked —
and will be — if Fury regains the title in style.

But if he loses this rematch, he
sinks clearly below the real great ones forever. It’s just like that.

Tris Dixon’s response:  I can’t see Tyson Fury not getting into the
International Boxing Hall of Fame. 

I agree that his resume is
shallow given his reputation, and the Wilder results depend on how highly you
regard Wilder, I guess. The first fight was incredible given where he was in
his comeback, and I felt Fury was robbed of victory. He was brilliant in the
second fight. The third was Fight of the Year. I was impressed with Fury’s win
against Dillian Whyte. That might have been him at his best. The Francis
Ngannou fight was always going to be a no-win for Fury – though perhaps his
bank manager would argue contrarily.

If, however, Fury beats Usyk
well, widely, or even stops him, that will likely be his signature win. It will
certainly mean he’s defeated both every fighter he has faced in the pros and
the best fighter he has faced in the pros.

There is still a huge appeal in
the UK for a fight between Fury and Joshua. It won’t mean what it would have
meant a few years ago to people like you and me, but it would fill a soccer
stadium, and a win over Usyk and then victory over Joshua would make Fury’s
resume much more favorable.

JARON
“BOOTS” ENNIS IS A FRAUD AT WELTERWEIGHT

Jaron “Boots” Ennis is in love
with being a prospect. He’s achieved nothing at 147. He only fights at that
weight because he needs months to fight at 147. He is a fraud.

Lucas Ketelle’s response: Talented fighters struggle these days to land
regular fight dates. At the same time, people on social media seem more focused
on tearing down rather than building up fighters’ reputations. 

As one of the biggest defenders
of Jaron Ennis, it’s disheartening to see him still waiting for that marquee
matchup. While it’s understandable that securing fights is a challenge in a
landscape no longer built on being the best, Ennis could make strategic
concessions to push for these bouts. Instead, he’s faced with a largely
uninspiring rematch against Karen Chukhadzhian in a mandatory title defense
against an opponent Ennis clearly beat in 2023. 

The label of “fraud” is a bit
extreme. Ennis has passed multiple tests along the way. But “frustration” seems
like a more fitting replacement. Fans are clamoring for Ennis to unify titles
or at least engage in fights viewed as 50-50 matchups. This upcoming bout marks
his second fight of 2024 — a step in the right direction. And if he can make
the weight, there’s nothing fraudulent about that.

We’re living in an age where
calling someone a “weight bully” is intended to shame fighters who’ve mastered
their weight cuts like athletes in “The Hunger Games” training for survival. At
the core of this issue is a pressing question: Does Ennis possess Hall of Fame
potential? With only one significant fight under his belt, uncertainty
continues to loom over his future. And the longer that remains, the more fans
will get frustrated.

BAM
RODRIGUEZ RELEGATED TO SIDEKICK ROLE UNDER MATCHROOM BOXING

Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez is an
[idiot] to take Eddie Hearn’s offer. He’s pretty much a sidekick, not getting
paid as much but fighting tougher competition while Jaron “Boots” Ennis acts
like a draw while fighting trash in a dead division.

Tris Dixon’s response: There is a lot of negativity about Hearn in the
United States. With Bam, he is very much needed to support a show that was
otherwise a tough sell without him. That’s not Hearn’s fault. That’s the IBF’s
for giving Boots a rerun of a fight he already won easily.

Time will tell for Bam, but as
long as he keeps winning, I think he will find himself in some more big fights.
As a boxer, he doesn’t strike me as someone who does not want to test himself.
I’m sure he and trainer Robert Garcia will want all of the smoke — and they
will be pushing Hearn to deliver the most meaningful fights. 

You can’t forget the possibility
of him showing up on a bill in Riyadh in a huge fight, and he does great
business in Phoenix, which is promptly becoming one of the world’s best fight
cities, so I’m sure he will have options. A key thing is activity. This
mandatory defense against Pedro Guevara is not necessarily a fight we wanted,
but Bam is keeping his tools sharp, and he’ll be ready to go again in early
2025.   

FLOYD
SCHOFIELD HAS A POSSIBLE PATH FORWARD

Floyd Schofield has a lot of
career upside if he can use his boxing ability and stay out of too many
slugfests. Fast hands, a fighter’s demeanor, and refreshingly candid post-fight
interviews had me entertained.

Tris Dixon’s response: I like Schofield for what he brings in and outside
the ropes. As you say, sometimes we just need guys to get their hands dirty
and, perhaps more pertinently, guys who aren’t afraid to do that. Of course,
too many slugfests are not good for longevity, but the fact Schofield is
already calling out the likes of Shakur Stevenson and Gervonta “Tank” Davis
indicates to me that Schofield might not be thinking about boxing for another
10 years already. 

The sport will be a brighter
place if he does. That post-fight interview showed what boxing needs. I’ve
always said it would be boring if everyone was the same, and Schofield has done
a great job of setting himself apart from his peers.

FLOYD
SCHOFIELD DOESN’T DESERVE THE HYPE

Floyd Schofield is overrated as
hell. I see why Shakur Stevenson was laughing. This guy has so much developing
to do, it’s not funny. All that in-close switching and being confused is crazy
also. Schofield isn’t ready for any of the top guys after fighting this basic
fighter [Rene Tellez Giron] and just looking OK. 

Tris Dixon’s response: The thing with Schofield is he has time on his
side. He’s 18-0 (12 KOs) and only 22 years old. He clearly has skills, but if
managed and matched properly — fighting three times a year with the right
fights as he matures, learns and improves — imagine where he could be in three
years. He would be 25 years old and 27-0 if he wins them all. Yes, I realize
he’s only fought once this year, but Schofield might become a much more rounded
fighter.

I agree that talk of Schofield
facing the big guns at 135 is otherwise premature. But I’m all for a strong,
deep division, and the emergence of Schofield is another bright spot at
lightweight. Credit to Giron, too. He is tough.

KATIE
TAYLOR IS THE TOP STAR IN WOMEN’S BOXING, FAR AND AWAY

Tris Dixon’s response: Katie has been outstanding for women’s boxing — and
boxing on the whole. She is a wonderful poster girl for the sport and carries
herself brilliantly. She has also been in a number of excellent fights, is
fan-friendly and has faced some of the best opposition. 

In Ireland, she is a brand of
her own, but I’m not sure she gets similar fanfare elsewhere. That said, let’s
see what her rematch against Amanda Serrano on the upcoming Jake Paul vs. Mike
Tyson show in Texas does for Taylor’s profile. It could really be a
gamechanger.

With that said, there is room
for more than one top female fighter, as I’m sure Claressa Shields would agree.

ONCE AGAIN,
ERROL SPENCE ISN’T DOING HIMSELF ANY FAVORS

Does Errol Spence really want to
continue fighting? He’s made the same mistake of being too inactive again. I
get it: Terence “Bud” Crawford beat him up. But you can’t be too inactive and
expect to be effective.

Tris Dixon’s response: Errol Spence didn’t sound too convincing to me
about his future or his recent past when we spoke in Las Vegas earlier this year. I don’t think his inactivity will help him at
all. Even Spence himself probably doesn’t know what he has left, and he might
not be given a true answer if he again goes in at a high level for his return –
if it happens.

I’d much rather Spence take a
couple of lesser fights and warm to the task again. But when you get to that
level, you only want certain money. And an eight-rounder on an undercard isn’t
going to pay the bills.

Of course, an Errol Spence at
his best and on the rampage at 154 would be incredible for that stacked
division. The odds are against Spence being at his best, however. His
inactivity on its own is rough enough. When added to Spence’s catalog of
trauma, the signs are not promising.

TYSON FURY
NEEDS TO BE MORE AGGRESSIVE IN OLEKSANDR USYK REMATCH

Tyson Fury needs a performance
like he had in the Deontay Wilder rematch. Oleksandr Usyk can’t handle
pressure; Derek Chisora showed us that. Pressure him, fight him and run him
down, and he will fold to the Gypsy King. Sadly I fear Fury may try to fight on
the back foot again. Big mistake.

Owen Lewis’ response: There are a couple pieces to this. First: that Fury
needs the kind of performance he showed in his second fight with Deontay
Wilder. Nothing went wrong for him on the day that he bullied Wilder. And Fury
primarily did so by coming forward, which to many, seemed a suicide tactic
beforehand given Wilder’s napalm-laden right hand. Wilder proved unable to
fight going backward, leaving him a sitting duck for Fury’s right hand. It was
a phenomenal gameplan. 

Which leads us to your second
point: that Fury needs to do this against Usyk, and that Usyk has proven
himself vulnerable to pressure. Here, I think you’re off base. The Chisora
fight is often cited as the perfect game plan for fighting Usyk. But in rewatching
it to answer this question, I thought Chisora’s mauling aggression was
successful for all of two and two-thirds rounds. Then a sharp left hand from
Usyk buzzed Chisora. The big man started to slow down, and Usyk more or less
had his way for the rest of the fight. And while Usyk certainly seemed
uncomfortable in that initial phase, at no point did he look significantly
hurt.

Guess who was in attendance that
night, watching keenly? Anthony Joshua. And guess who also failed to employ the
come-forward, bullying strategy against Usyk for more than a couple rounds at a
time, despite fighting him twice.

There’s a reason why no one has
been able to steamroll Usyk. Multiple reasons, actually: He has fast, accurate
hands capable of landing sharp counters. His elite footwork and fitness tires
his opponents out quickly. And, though it’s less talked about than his other
attributes, Usyk has one hell of a chin. I actually think Fury, despite his
propensity for bizarre press conference answers, put it perfectly in an interview at the press conference for the rematch:

“If it was easy to walk Usyk
down… that’s Anthony Joshua’s style, that’s Daniel Dubois’ style. They’re big,
strong men who walk someone down with their hands up and batter them into
submission and knock them out. They couldn’t do it [to Usyk]. My style is
slickness, jabbing, moving, slipping and sliding. Why would I give that up to
walk forward… it doesn’t make sense. I wouldn’t do it. All I’ve got to do to
win this rematch is little, tiny adjustments. And I mean small adjustments.”

I think Fury is right. When he
was in full flow in his first fight with Usyk, he arguably won five straight
rounds (the third through the seventh), and in doing so not only hurt Usyk but
made Usyk look more ordinary than ever before. Sticking to what worked before
rather than adopting a radically different strategy — against a much more
skilled opponent than Deontay Wilder, mind you — seems like the best bet.
Perhaps Fury is hiding his true intentions, as is his wont, but I don’t think
he’s mistaken in this line of thinking.

Now none of this is to say that
the blueprint from the Wilder II fight can’t work against Usyk. If Fury
sustains a torrid pace for four rounds and targets the body with venom, I can
picture him putting Usyk under even more duress than he did in their first
fight, and maybe knock Usyk down, for instance.

But I wouldn’t recommend this
game plan to Fury. Unless he can get a stoppage, which seems extremely
difficult given how tough Usyk is, that strategy will put Fury in deep trouble.
If he gasses out, then Usyk will dominate. Then there’s the matter of Fury’s
chin. In the first fight, Usyk not only showed he could hurt Fury badly but
probably weakened Fury’s punch resistance significantly with that brutal salvo
in the ninth round. By refusing to box from a distance, Fury would be walking
his vulnerable chin into Usyk’s preferred range.

As for Chisora, the man who you
say showed that Usyk can’t handle pressure? In a recent interview with TalkSPORT, he said that Usyk is too good to simply be beaten
by a swarming style, that Usyk exhausts his opponents early in fights and, most
notably, “100 per cent” will beat Fury again. Recall that Chisora has fought
Fury three times and been stopped by him twice.

The second Wilder fight might be
best viewed as an aberration, a great night against an opponent with enormous
power but also clear limitations. Fury, at heart, is an extraordinary boxer,
and in Usyk he is fighting another one. It’s no surprise, or a mistake, that
the Gypsy King wants to fight in the style that suits him best.

Want to be
featured in the mailbag? Comment or ask a question in the comments section
below. Submissions may be edited for length and clarity. We also may select
readers’ comments from other BoxingScene stories.