Tyson Fury’s career as a major player will be on the line tonight in his rematch with three-time heavyweight champion Alexander Usyk at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh.
Usyk could put the 36-year-old former WBC heavyweight champion Fury out to pasture as he appears to be physically done with his looks. Tyson’s behavior was strange, signaling that the defeat against Wick last May had taken the best part of what was left of him.
Fury’s Career Survival
‘The Gypsy King’ needs a win tonight not only to put himself in position for a trilogy with Usik (22-0, 14 KOs) if that’s the direction he chooses to go, but also to generate interest in the mega-money all- British clash against Anthony Joshua.
The worst possible scenario would be for Fury to get plowed through by Usyk tonight, knocked out, and then dragged into a fight against Joshua, who is coming off a two-game losing streak. Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) looked awful, lost his last fight and had to be saved by the referee in the ninth round.
I want to know who Fury is going to blame after Usyk does him tonight. The obvious guy to drop would be his trainer, SugarHill Steward, who engineered his win over Deontay Wilder with his game plan.
Fury has looked bad in his fights since his one big win in nine years, and it’s clear that SugarHill has no idea how to improve him other than using the tired reliance strategy he devised for the Deontai bout. Fury has used that strategy multiple times in his fights against Dillian Whyte, Derek Chisora and 0-0 rookie Francis Ngannou.
If things don’t go his way tonight for Fury, he can give SugarHill and Andy Lee the royal boot. Then he can tell the media that he’s going with a whole new team. The fans would accept it, and Fury’s loss to Usyk tonight would be partially washed away.
Matchmaking Magic
The reality is Fury isn’t that good, and never has been. He was always just a fighter who moved on with the matchmaking, living off a victory over the washed-up 39-year-old Wladimir Klitschko. Fury got a LOT of mileage out of beating up the old grizzled guy, who Corrie Sanders had already knocked out in two rounds before fighting him.
Apart from that one win, Fury didn’t beat anyone and was always a step above British level, but his promoters matched him carefully to avoid guys who would expose him to the light of day as average.