Tyson Fury is not being given much of a chance by fans on social media for his rematch against WBA, WBC and WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk on December 21.
Fans that Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) finished the job he started in the ninth round of the first fight against Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) on May 18 when he had the Gypsy King on the brink of a knockout.
Unless a referee steps in to save Fury by giving him an eight fight save count, Usyk will likely knock him out in the rematch on December 21st. Usyk will plan to land on Fury with an avalanche of punches in the rematch and overwhelm the older fighter with strikes.
Fury’s biggest concern is that he is too slow and big to fight Usyk if he unloads on him with more than 20 straight head shots like he did in the ninth round of their first fight.
In reality, Fury is 0-2 in his last two fights and is headed for his third straight defeat against Usyk. Which is not good, considering that His Excellency Turki Alalshikh has already said that Fury and Anthony Joshua will fight regardless of the results of their next fights. Francis Ngannou deserved a win over Fury last October in Riyadh but was given a rough treatment by the judges.
We’ve already seen a 34-year-old Joshua out of luck as he was knocked out of the water by IBF champion Daniel Dubois on September 21st. It’s Fury’s turn to be destroyed in his rematch with Usyk. The UK boxing public probably won’t care that Fury is beaten again by Usyk, but the rest of the world will be put off.
They don’t want to watch a couple of rich, washed-up fighters back in a PPV fight against the backs of knockout losses. If Joshua takes the rematch with Dubois, he will likely be defeated again, creating a situation where he and Fury will both have back-to-back defeats when they meet in 2025.
What happened to Fury?
I have to agree with the fans. Fury looks like he’s headed for trouble in the second fight, and there’s not much he can do without finding the Fountain of Youth before December 21st.
Fury seems to have aged badly in recent years and no longer looks like the fighter he once was. It is unclear whether he burned the candle at both ends between fights, living on rich food and expensive drinks.
What Fury did when he wasn’t fighting did something for him. Sitting on a massive fortune like Fury, why he wanted to eat well is understandable. Who wouldn’t when they had Fury’s money? If I were as rich as Fury, I would also eat in the pig, and be washed like him at his age.
Fury needs to bring back the version of himself that beat the stuffing Deontay Wilder in their second fight in 2020 because it was his career best for that fight. Even the version of Fury who beat 39-year-old Wladimir Klitschko in 2015 was not at the level he was when he beat Wilder in the second fight in 2020.
