[ POLL ] The Unification Fight: FURY vs USYK sponsored by Utopia

[inthelongrun]

Usyk tweeted something to Fury earlier. It seems like he remained fit during the long holidays. I bet Belly gained a lot of weight after the long holidays. Weird it's the side of Fury that wanted a March date. Fury will be burning some of his fats in order to be a little quicker in order to catch Usyk.

If Fury loses a little fat, then this is unlikely to help him compare with Usyk in terms of speed, at least approximately. Usyk has always maintained a good shape, this should be done by every professional. And Fury does not know what he wants, then he decides to end his career (and it is clear that in this case for him hard to find motivation for intensive training), but an athlete must always keep himself in good shape, although we are talking about Fury, he not particularly worried about it.

Being heavy means the footwork and hand speed will be slower. Tyson Fury knows how to use his weight and adjusts when necessary. It is true that he cannot be quicker than Usyk but adding a little quickness helps. There were reasons why Tyson Fury went lighter than his usual weight against the smart yet slower Wladimir Klitschko because he needs his lateral movements and quickness to outmaneuver the long-time champion. Tyson Fury went heavier than usual in the 2nd and 3rd fights against Deontay Wilder because the American is not fast enough and the impact of those killer blows will be minimized by the added weight.

Usyk is not the usual heavy-handed fighter so I am liking Fury to come in at 250-260 pounds.

[hilariousetc]

Tyson did a couple of interviews during the Eubank/Smith fight last night and one thing that surprised me is he's still very interested in that Francis fight which I thought he might try dismiss since he's got so much else potentially going on. Maybe they actually almost got the fight done behind the scenes when they were hyping it up but Francis' UFC situation was blocking it: https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/boxing/tyson-fury-francis-ngannou-fight-29018572

Fury seems to have a settled down life with his wife and kids therefore I cannot see him spiralling out of control after he retires. The problem with fighters approaching mid-30s is that they can get complacent and suffer shock losses. Fury will not risk it, I mean if he beats Usyk does he really need to fight again? Yes any Fury vs Joshua fight would sell-out but in the end does Fury need it especially if he is holding the belts and Joshua has none?

Maybe Fury can control himself and have motivations as well as discipline outside of a life away from the boxing ring. He deserves it after dominating in and off for many years.

Fury has been settled down with wife and kids for years and was married at 18 or 19 before he was even a pro boxer. He needs more than a wife and kids in his life as it seems like he needs a reason to get out of bed in the morning and do something productive because if he doesn't have something to work towards it seemingly consumes him and depression takes over and he falls back into bad habits (though I guess that's also true for most of us).

I'm banking that this fight is going to be in Middle East? the money is there to be make if Arum And Warren can pushed the fight in Saudi Arabia and probably that's what they have done in this fight, I reckon.

What you guys think?

Well that's what they want as that's where the money is. I just hope the promoters aren't getting too greedy because this fight should have been done and dusted ages ago and we all know that Saudi wanted it as they publicly said so and had already made an offer for the fight last year but Usyk wanted the rest of the year off after the AJ fight and to spend Christmas and new years with his family which is understandable.

https://www.skysports.com/boxing/news/12183/12790589/tyson-fury-vs-oleksandr-usyk-venue-the-only-issue-for-heavyweight-unification-bout-says-bob-arum

Bob Arum has revealed the venue is the only remaining obstacle to the heavyweight unification fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk being confirmed, with the Middle East leading the race.

Arum, the CEO of Fury's American promoters Top Rank, told Sky Sports News the WBC king and WBA, WBO and IBF champion Usyk have agreed to the showdown and expects a location to be finalised in the next week.

An unspecified country in the Middle East is the likely host for the hotly-anticipated contest due to the huge sums of money being talked about for both boxers, but if that does not happen then Wembley Stadium would be on the table.

That screams to me that it's now just about the money.

[Baofeng]

^^ For sure, it's all about money and that's why at least on Arum's side, they keep on mentioning Middle East as their first choice because of the huge money they are going to get from their Saudi investors. Eddie Hearn already knows that as he has stages fight in Saudi already, so it make sense for this greedy promoters to strike while the iron is hot as this oil rich country's billionaires are willing to shell out huge money for this kind of fight. And maybe in the next 5 years or so, it will be the venue to held mega fights because of this reasons.

[hilariousetc]

Looks like it's Fury being greedy holding this fight up and Usyk called him out for it earlier:

Details have not been finalised with a venue and date yet to be sealed, despite it being made clear that Saudi Arabia is in the most prominent position to offer a lucrative deal to host the event. In a fresh update on where negotiations have reached, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has claimed that Usyk's team have already reached a deal with the Middle Eastern country, so it is only left for Fury to be settled on the contract.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/boxing/tyson-fury-oleksandr-usyk-news-29029780

Usyk wrote: "Fury, you talk about greatness in Boxing. At the same time you say 'give me a lot of money'. Greatness in Boxing is not determined by money, greatness comes from a victorious path. You say that I avoid you, although I never have, and in fact I've come to you. I'm ready to box with you even without any prize money!"

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/boxing/oleksandr-usyk-tyson-fury-boxing-29046693

If Fury walks away from this then I'm going to lose a lot of respect for him. He's probably trying to squeeze as much money out of this as he can get rather than just take the already ridiculously huge deal that will be on the table. Seems Tyson's promoter is now mentioning Joe Joyce as another opponent. Tyson can fight him after that.

[Welsh]

The thing is, even if Usyk doesn't want a whole lot of money himself, his promoters likely will. I usually tend to think that the promoters are the one's that prevent fights from happening instead of the actual fighters. Although, there's been multiple accusations in regards to Fury holding up deals, including Joshua. So, there might be some merit to it.

I never really pay too much attention to it though, as there always seems to be these kinds of problems in negotiations, and the majority of them never get resolved. Unfortunately, it's us fans that lose out. One of the reasons I don't get to involved with boxing is because you'll get excited for a fight, and it'll never happen, even though it probably is the only logical step forward for both fighters.

[Lida93]

^^ For sure, it's all about money and that's why at least on Arum's side, they keep on mentioning Middle East as their first choice because of the huge money they are going to get from their Saudi investors. Eddie Hearn already knows that as he has stages fight in Saudi already, so it make sense for this greedy promoters to strike while the iron is hot as this oil rich country's billionaires are willing to shell out huge money for this kind of fight. And maybe in the next 5 years or so, it will be the venue to held mega fights because of this reasons.

The amount of money that's expected to be generated from this fight is one that can only come from no where but the Middle East and the organisers of the fight understands this so well. And these deep pocket owners in the East don't mind pulling out their resources for a big fight as that.
You may call it greed on the side of the organisers but that's what  it entails for them to keep being in business, cause fighting has gone beyond just entertainment.

[KTChampions]

~
If Fury walks away from this then I'm going to lose a lot of respect for him. He's probably trying to squeeze as much money out of this as he can get rather than just take the already ridiculously huge deal that will be on the table. Seems Tyson's promoter is now mentioning Joe Joyce as another opponent. Tyson can fight him after that.

I think it's even worse - Fury, under various pretexts, will try to avoid Usyk for as long as possible (hoping that someone else will defeat him, for example, Wilder). I wrote such assumptions before, but I did not think that they would come true so accurately. Fury the coward was running from Klitschko and now he is running from Usyk. I think there can be no serious talk about the "greatness" of this doping addict.

[Welsh]

I think it's even worse - Fury, under various pretexts, will try to avoid Usyk for as long as possible (hoping that someone else will defeat him, for example, Wilder). I wrote such assumptions before, but I did not think that they would come true so accurately. Fury the coward was running from Klitschko and now he is running from Usyk. I think there can be no serious talk about the "greatness" of this doping addict.

Not sure if that's the case. If you look at the biggest fights in the last five years, Fury has been the headliner for them. I can't remember the last time Joshua or Wilder were in big fights that didn't involve Fury. Joshua's fight against Ruiz was only a big deal, because Joshua unexpectedly lost. If it wasn't for him losing that, Ruiz wasn't really a massive name before that. A good fighter, but a massive name he wasn't.

Joshua has basically been fighting the same fighters over, and over for the longest time. Usyk is relatively new to the division, but obviously did have some relatively big fights before moving to heavyweight.

[hilariousetc]

The thing is, even if Usyk doesn't want a whole lot of money himself, his promoters likely will. I usually tend to think that the promoters are the one's that prevent fights from happening instead of the actual fighters. Although, there's been multiple accusations in regards to Fury holding up deals, including Joshua. So, there might be some merit to it.

I dunno about that. Promoters probably only get 10-20%, right? If the fight doesn't happen then they get 10-20% of zero so the promoters probably just want the fight to happen rather than trying to greedily squeeze a little extra out of it and risk it falling through. In the AJ/Fury potential fight it looked like Warren was desperate for it to happen and was doing everything he could to try make it so but it was Fury putting silly arbitrary deadlines on it and then he pulled out when in reality they probably could have made the fight if they'd been given time. Hearn seemed like he wanted the fight also, or at least publicly he was very keen. The only issue I could see if is they were worried another loss - which would be likely - would further damage his brand. Dazn may have played a part in that also given they signed him on a huge deal, though I'm sure they would have been happy to show that fight it would not have been in their favour given it was a Tyson Fury promotion.

I never really pay too much attention to it though, as there always seems to be these kinds of problems in negotiations, and the majority of them never get resolved. Unfortunately, it's us fans that lose out. One of the reasons I don't get to involved with boxing is because you'll get excited for a fight, and it'll never happen, even though it probably is the only logical step forward for both fighters.

Yeah, it's probably one of the biggest issues in boxing today. Rather than try sort the fights out publicly and through the media they should probably just work them out in private and behind the scenes and then only announce them when the contracts are signed. For instance, if Fury wants to fight AJ he should have their respective promoters just get the contracts done now without any chat in the media and then once they're done and dusted then announce it. You don't even have to fight next or straight away just get the contracts done for a fight at the end of the year or something.

[JollyGood]

I don't know about that. I don't think it's being clever or not. It's just boxers, and in general combat sports athletes tend to go on a little longer than they probably should. Call it a love for the game or whatever, but there's been a lot of examples. Even the greats, like Mike Tyson probably went on longer than they should have. He even returned for a exhibition probably because he misses boxing.

Fury has already had withdrawal effects from boxing when he wasn't doing it, and has said that he needs to train to keep himself sane. So, he might find that retiring for real, might have that effect on him again. I know he's apparently retired since then, but that was mainly talk in my opinion.

Fury does need the boxing ring for now but it is a mental battle. As soon as he realises he is not as dependant on the boxing ring as thought he would be able to walk away. He is in mid-30s now therefore even he knows he has not got more than maybe 3 fights left but more likely two.

I'm banking that this fight is going to be in Middle East? the money is there to be make if Arum And Warren can pushed the fight in Saudi Arabia and probably that's what they have done in this fight, I reckon.

What you guys think?

That is not a done deal yet. If the fight does go ahead then it could literally be anywhere because it would sell out any venue. I am not confident it will take place in the Middle East.

If Fury loses a little fat, then this is unlikely to help him compare with Usyk in terms of speed, at least approximately. Usyk has always maintained a good shape, this should be done by every professional. And Fury does not know what he wants, then he decides to end his career (and it is clear that in this case for him hard to find motivation for intensive training), but an athlete must always keep himself in good shape, although we are talking about Fury, he not particularly worried about it.

I have to agree here. Usyk throughout his career has been taking care of himself but most of the time Fury gets in the ring to face an opponent he does look like he trained well and is in a good place because his physique shows it. I doubt Fury, his team or his fans will be worried by the time he gets in the ring.

[TopTort777]

Usyk tweeted something to Fury earlier. It seems like he remained fit during the long holidays. I bet Belly gained a lot of weight after the long holidays. Weird it's the side of Fury that wanted a March date. Fury will be burning some of his fats in order to be a little quicker in order to catch Usyk.

If Fury loses a little fat, then this is unlikely to help him compare with Usyk in terms of speed, at least approximately. Usyk has always maintained a good shape, this should be done by every professional. And Fury does not know what he wants, then he decides to end his career (and it is clear that in this case for him hard to find motivation for intensive training), but an athlete must always keep himself in good shape, although we are talking about Fury, he not particularly worried about it.

All this fat is like an additional shield for Fury. Compared to other, big or fat heavyweight boxers, he is faster. I doubt that fat gives him any kind of discomfort or bothers him. Fat does not interfere him to fight against Wilder, it wont interfere him to fight Usyk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4USznqQGG4 <-- I think fat helped him a bit to decrease damage from such body shots. Body shape - that is the least thing I look at in heavyweights. Rarely we see a kidney or liver knockouts among heavyweights.

I also think that his fat body is part of his mental strategy. I believe his opponents are a bit furious when a fat guy beats them, or moves as fast as they, who spend hours in gyms.

As to Usyk, he has been in good shape because his is a natural cruiserweight. Usyk is currently lighters heavyweight. Same weight heavyweights were in 50s-70s (like Rocky Marciano). For example regular person of that age was much smaller than regular person of 21 century.

[Welsh]

The fighters also get 0% if they don't make the fight happen. So, there's equal incentive either way really. Promoters might only get 10-20%, but at the end of the day if they can push those numbers up their share gets bigger, therefore there's an incentive there for them to try, and get as much as they can.

Fighters just typically want to fight, and are already rolling in the money. I guess you could say the same for promoters though.

Yeah, it's probably one of the biggest issues in boxing today. Rather than try sort the fights out publicly and through the media they should probably just work them out in private and behind the scenes and then only announce them when the contracts are signed. For instance, if Fury wants to fight AJ he should have their respective promoters just get the contracts done now without any chat in the media and then once they're done and dusted then announce it. You don't even have to fight next or straight away just get the contracts done for a fight at the end of the year or something.

It makes me think that they're trying to build a mega fight, but that doesn't really make much sense since it's already one of the biggest events in boxing. I've wanted that fight for years, I don't care if Joshua has racked up some losses recently, I just want that fight to happen. Usyk, and Fury I'd like to see, but if I got to pick between the two it'd be Joshua. I know some think Usyk is technically better than Fury, but I don't really see that. Instead, I think Fury finds it easier than the Joshua fight. Assuming, that Joshua goes back to his old ways, and doesn't try to outbox Fury like he did with Usyk.

Ultimately, I just want the fights to happen. I feel boxing has lost a lot of support over the years simply because the fights that need to happen, don't actually happen.

[hilariousetc]

The fighters also get 0% if they don't make the fight happen. So, there's equal incentive either way really. Promoters might only get 10-20%, but at the end of the day if they can push those numbers up their share gets bigger, therefore there's an incentive there for them to try, and get as much as they can.

Fighters just typically want to fight, and are already rolling in the money. I guess you could say the same for promoters though.

But with promoters it's kind of a parasitic industry. If the fighters don't fight then they don't get paid anything and if it's between something or nothing then they'll take something but they will want the most amount of cash possible. There's no way someone like Frank Warren is going to want Fury to fight Dillian Whyte when AJ is potentially on the cards but Tyson seemed to not care about that but rather take the easier fight. Not sure why but the fighter will have the last say in things unless they're tied into a contract to deliver x amount of fights within a certain time frame or something. I don't even get why big fighters even have promoters these days. They're probably vital for getting into the game but once their initial contract is up and they've built a fanbase/audience then they should probably just go at it alone like Mayweather did. Tyson doesn't need to be giving 10-20% away to anybody now.

Yeah, it's probably one of the biggest issues in boxing today. Rather than try sort the fights out publicly and through the media they should probably just work them out in private and behind the scenes and then only announce them when the contracts are signed. For instance, if Fury wants to fight AJ he should have their respective promoters just get the contracts done now without any chat in the media and then once they're done and dusted then announce it. You don't even have to fight next or straight away just get the contracts done for a fight at the end of the year or something.

It makes me think that they're trying to build a mega fight, but that doesn't really make much sense since it's already one of the biggest events in boxing. I've wanted that fight for years, I don't care if Joshua has racked up some losses recently, I just want that fight to happen. Usyk, and Fury I'd like to see, but if I got to pick between the two it'd be Joshua. I know some think Usyk is technically better than Fury, but I don't really see that. Instead, I think Fury finds it easier than the Joshua fight. Assuming, that Joshua goes back to his old ways, and doesn't try to outbox Fury like he did with Usyk.

Ultimately, I just want the fights to happen. I feel boxing has lost a lot of support over the years simply because the fights that need to happen, don't actually happen.

I don't think there's anything to suggest they're trying to build up to it right now, but I think it will happen at some point despite Fury saying he doesn't care about it. It's still going to be one of the biggest UK fights ever and if they end their careers without fighting each other I don't think they'll ever live it down or stop hearing about it. It probably makes sense for AJ to get back on his feet with a few wins and maybe even win a belt back so there's something on the line for the fight though. Doesn't really make sense for either Tyson or AJ to keep fighting bums when they can fight each other and get what will possibly be the biggest payday of their career.

[KTChampions]

I think it's even worse - Fury, under various pretexts, will try to avoid Usyk for as long as possible (hoping that someone else will defeat him, for example, Wilder). I wrote such assumptions before, but I did not think that they would come true so accurately. Fury the coward was running from Klitschko and now he is running from Usyk. I think there can be no serious talk about the "greatness" of this doping addict.

Not sure if that's the case. If you look at the biggest fights in the last five years, Fury has been the headliner for them. I can't remember the last time Joshua or Wilder were in big fights that didn't involve Fury. Joshua's fight against Ruiz was only a big deal, because Joshua unexpectedly lost. If it wasn't for him losing that, Ruiz wasn't really a massive name before that. A good fighter, but a massive name he wasn't.

Joshua has basically been fighting the same fighters over, and over for the longest time. Usyk is relatively new to the division, but obviously did have some relatively big fights before moving to heavyweight.

I don’t understand why I should watch some fights if I remember how Fury was running from Klitschko and now it looks like he is running from Usyk? 
By the way, do you remember the fight with Wallin (left-hander) which was like a training one but Fury couldn't knock out his opponent and hung in the balance from a technical defeat starting the third round due to a cut? Obviously Usyk is more dangerous.

[Welsh]

Fury does need the boxing ring for now but it is a mental battle. As soon as he realises he is not as dependant on the boxing ring as thought he would be able to walk away. He is in mid-30s now therefore even he knows he has not got more than maybe 3 fights left but more likely two.

It's pretty hard to figure out what he needs. However, he said once he accomplished his biggest goal, nothing meant much after that. Now, I think that's actually quite a common thing for people who achieve their life long goal. However, he did go down the extreme end of things, this is probably due to having a lot of money, and the ability to use that money for drugs etc. That's what probably threw him off the rails a little bit. I think he's doing a lot better these days, and seems to appreciate his wife even more so than he did, which is lovely to see.

However, there's no telling if he's going to struggle once he has to retire, and he'll probably need another goal from something he enjoys doing. Seriously, when something becomes your identity, and you kind of lose it, that's incredibly hard to recover from. I really hope he does find peace after he retires, and I'm hoping he retires undefeated. However, only Tyson can decide that, and as I've said before I feel like he'll probably run it into the ground, like most undefeated fighters. They fight a little too long unfortunately.

[Erumo]

Reply to those who claim that Fury is fat: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CnkS4tkjDvM/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=. This isnt fat, these are airbags. The kid that punches Fury is Stephen McKenna, professional boxer, welterweight. His punches are nothing compared to Usyk, but Fury is able to hold heavy punches. For example Fury has survived Bronze bomber head punch.

I give little chances for Usyk. He is experienced, but never faced such a heavy fighter before. Looks like Usyk did not have enough power to knockout Fury, when Fury can land a punch, daze Usyk and finish with a knockout. It does not look like Usyk is going to survive whole 12 round, to be able to win by points.

[KTChampions]

Reply to those who claim that Fury is fat: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CnkS4tkjDvM/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=. This isnt fat, these are airbags. The kid that punches Fury is Stephen McKenna, professional boxer, welterweight. His punches are nothing compared to Usyk, but Fury is able to hold heavy punches. For example Fury has survived Bronze bomber head punch.

I give little chances for Usyk. He is experienced, but never faced such a heavy fighter before. Looks like Usyk did not have enough power to knockout Fury, when Fury can land a punch, daze Usyk and finish with a knockout. It does not look like Usyk is going to survive whole 12 round, to be able to win by points.

Strange analysis. I think if McKenna had punched Fury in the jaw, he would have knocked him out. The problem of a knockout is not the strength of the head, but an accented punch. If the boxer managed to do it, then the opponent falls. Usyk may well first outbox Fury and then “finish off” with a knockout punch when Fury is no longer able to defend himself. This is often the case in pairs of a smart boxer against a puncher: if a smart boxer survives in the early rounds, then in the end he will knock out and not him. Plus, this applies mainly to smaller weight categories - here, even in the first round, one lucky punch from any boxer can end the fight.

[inthelongrun]

Reply to those who claim that Fury is fat: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CnkS4tkjDvM/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=. This isnt fat, these are airbags. The kid that punches Fury is Stephen McKenna, professional boxer, welterweight. His punches are nothing compared to Usyk, but Fury is able to hold heavy punches. For example Fury has survived Bronze bomber head punch.

I give little chances for Usyk. He is experienced, but never faced such a heavy fighter before. Looks like Usyk did not have enough power to knockout Fury, when Fury can land a punch, daze Usyk and finish with a knockout. It does not look like Usyk is going to survive whole 12 round, to be able to win by points.

That's an old video though. Saw that already a few years ago. Fury seems below 270 pounds in that video. And yes, Fury was fat in some of his fights. Boxing casuals may not see it but Fury had been adjusting his weights depending on his opponents unless they were cherry-picked or low risked opponents like Chisora and Whyte where weight is not an issue.

Another update into this historic fight. There is a targeted date already and obviously, this not happening in March. Hopefully, Arum stops pushing this fight in the UK where Usyk has been robbed of on some of his previous and obvious winning rounds. Cinco de Mayo weekend seems impossible now since the biggest name in boxing, Canelo Alvarez always gets the date he wants.

[Kemarit]

^^ I believed that it will be Saudi all along, maybe Arum just wanted to insert Wembley in the picture. But with the huge money that his Saudi friends are willing to put in line to get this fight in the Middle East, it might be too good to refuse by both camp specially Fury who might be asking for the bigger purse.

But we don't have any issues with regards to the venue, as long as we looking for a unification fight in Heavyweight now, then maybe majority will agree with me.

[Erumo]

Reply to those who claim that Fury is fat: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CnkS4tkjDvM/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=. This isnt fat, these are airbags. The kid that punches Fury is Stephen McKenna, professional boxer, welterweight. His punches are nothing compared to Usyk, but Fury is able to hold heavy punches. For example Fury has survived Bronze bomber head punch.

I give little chances for Usyk. He is experienced, but never faced such a heavy fighter before. Looks like Usyk did not have enough power to knockout Fury, when Fury can land a punch, daze Usyk and finish with a knockout. It does not look like Usyk is going to survive whole 12 round, to be able to win by points.

Strange analysis. I think if McKenna had punched Fury in the jaw, he would have knocked him out. The problem of a knockout is not the strength of the head, but an accented punch. If the boxer managed to do it, then the opponent falls. Usyk may well first outbox Fury and then “finish off” with a knockout punch when Fury is no longer able to defend himself. This is often the case in pairs of a smart boxer against a puncher: if a smart boxer survives in the early rounds, then in the end he will knock out and not him. Plus, this applies mainly to smaller weight categories - here, even in the first round, one lucky punch from any boxer can end the fight.

People dont fell down from accented punch, they get knocked out by the punch they dont see. Accented punch can daze an opponent, that maximum. Nevertheless, those airbegs will be what Usyk will break his wrists against off.

I dont see Usyk winning this fight, no matter how hard he will try. People see only fat side of Fury, they think he is slow and clumsy. But he will be as fast as Usyk, heavier and more powerful than Usyk. Usyk will fight in his typical manner - lots of punches and movement/counter every punch with 3-4 of his own. Usyk can circle around Fury, but his punches wont be much effective. Fury can even allow to open himself for a punch, withstand it and counter his own punch, that Usyk wont withstand.

That is how I see their confrontation.