A Fight For All 4 Heavy Belts - AT LAST! - OH...HANG ON....

First topic message reminder :

https://www.espn.co.uk/boxing/story/_/id/31456367/tyson-fury-says-fight-vs-anthony-joshua-take-place-aug-14-saudi-arabia

It seems that August 14th is the date and Saudi Arabia (as expected) will be the venue. As the old saying goes, "It's about go***mn time!"

So now the contracts have been drawn up, the money men have divided up what they want and Eddie Hearn and Bob Arum will be richer than a very rich man's slightly dodgy accountant, how do we all see this going?

My personal opinion is that too much is being made of Fury's boxing ability and a lot is being made of Joshua susceptibility to a heavy shot. This will be a much closer fight than many are predicting. Fury will not have it all his own way as per Wilder, because Deontay's fight relied on coming forward and throwing his big right hand. Joshua's not the be all and end all, far from it, but he has FAR better boxing ability than Wilder and has more concussive power than Fury does.

Fury of course, is no mug. He's shown time and again that he has the ability to win when nobody expects him to. His footwork and movement is good for a heavy, especially one of his size, and he loves a good fight. His whole fight plan relies on his confidence, and his propensity to second guess the other fighter's movement and next shots.

My thoughts? Fury will try very hard during the build-up to get under Joshua's skin and will do his best to unsettle him.We are likely to see AJ rattled during the pre-fight conferences mainly due to Fury being a master of annoyance and irritation. I think that AJ will come in at a similar weight to the second Ruiz fight so fairly light at 235-240lbs, whilst Fury will be about 265 - 270lbs, which he seems comfortable at.

The first couple of rounds are cagey, then Fury will start to find his range a bit more and will get into a rhythm, jab and move tactics. Eventually, about round 7, AJ starts to close the gap and find the target, and manages to put Fury down with an uppercut for a 6 count. He gets another knockdown but can't finish Fury off. Fury gets a cut in the 9th and it bothers him. AJ targets the cut causing Fury to go on the defensive. This costs him as he runs and pitter-pats, taking a few big shots. Eventually the 12th bell rings and AJ wins a razor-thin close split decision, meaning that the second fight is likely to be even bigger than the first.

I would have thought that the Usyk fight would be a fairly easy defence for Joshua.  The evidence so far indicates Usyk lacks knockout power and speed at heavyweight.  I doubt whether Usyk can take too many of AJ's power shots.  

However, what I have heard very recently is that Eddie Hearn doesn't seem to be too keen on this fight as the next fight - he was complaining about having to please sanctioning bodies, and having to bargain again with mandatories that might throw hurdles in the way of a fight negotiation process.  Maybe he is just peeved that all the effort he put into getting the AJ - Tyson fight deal came to nought and is not relishing having to enter another potentially tricky and difficult fight negotiation process.

Tbh if Joshua dropped the WBO belt would it be all that relevant? Probably not.
Joshua vs Whyte 2 at Wembley or Cardiff is a bigger fight. Usyk even if he wins that belt would lose it against any of the bigger heavyweights.

Looks like Usyk-Joshua is going ahead after all in September. I for one am very glad that it is - couldn't understand why anyone would rather see Joshua against Ortiz or Whyte.

The term 'ducking' gets thrown around too easily, and even when a fighter relinquishes a belt rather than face a mandatory I'm loath to call it ducking because it depends on the quality / draw of the mandatory, who the titlist goes on to face in lieu of the mandatory, what level the two guys are at, how much appetite for the fight there is and all that jazz. For instance Lennox Lewis vacating the WBA back in 2000 rather than accommodate Ruiz as his mandatory sure as hell wasn't a duck in any way, shape or form.

But if Joshua had vacated here? Would definitely have had a whiff of ducking about it, for me. Yeah, it would have been a bit more a strategic rather than outright fearful duck, and maybe one that you could understand even if you couldn't condone it. But a bit of a duck all the same.

Hearn and Matchroom never complained or lamented mandatory defences before this one. "AJ is a throwback, he's worked for the belts and he'll not give them up, getting all four of the belts to become undisputed is the ultimate goal" etc etc. All of a sudden here Hearn was saying how tired he was of governing bodies telling them who to fight, and how the belts didn't mean all that much so long as they beat Fury (or Wilder if he pulls the upset) whenever that fight happens.

For what it's worth, if there was no Fury mega fight on the horizon, I think both Hearn and Joshua would have jumped straight into the Usyk fight without all the hesitation and equivocation which we've seen these past few weeks. Hence why I said it would have been a bit of a strategic duck had Joshua vacated the WBO. They'd have loved a sure-fire, easy win fight for Joshua between now and the probable Fury fight in early 2021 or whenever it'll be. Instead they've got a potentially risky one which could throw a spanner in the works.

But if Joshua and Fury do both come through these approaching fights, I think Joshua gets a lot more credit and can go into the big undisputed showdown with a more confident spring in his step if he convincingly beats Usyk than he would for beating Ortiz, Whyte or Fat Andy again.

I haven't paid for a fight on Sky for years and years out of principle but I might just swallow those principles for AJ v Usyk.

I'm intrigued to see what a supremely skilled, albeit smaller, guy does with a less talented but much bigger fighter. I suspect AJ might wear him down and stop him late but the first 5 or 6 rounds will be really interesting.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/57770810

Fury gets Covid, fight with Wilder postponed until possibly October.

Hearn in fairness said Fury v Wilder wouldn't hapoen...Ticket sales are abysmal apparently and no surprise there.

Fury has won 17/19 rounds already.

Postponing 3 months ????...Really.

Yeah but Truss, Wilder's now got the formidable Malik Scott on his team...

It's such a waste of time.