Tyson Fury’s career as a major player will be on the line tonight in his rematch with three-time heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh.
Usyk may put the 36-year-old former WBC heavyweight champion Fury out to pasture as he looks physically done with his appearance. Tyson’s behavior has been strange, pointing out that his defeat against Uyk last May got the better of him.
The Age Burst
Fury looks used, and it’s not just from hard training. This struggle and the mental torture he faced in the last seven months pushed him into a age burst. This is where a person suddenly ages quickly. Fury has clearly suffered one since his loss to Usyk.
Rapid aging normally occurs in the 40s and 60s, but can begin earlier if a person experiences a high degree of stress.
The survival of Fury’s career
The “Gypsy King” needs the win tonight to not only put himself in position for a trilogy with Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) if that’s the direction he chooses to go, but also to create interest in a mega-money all- British clash against Anthony Joshua.
The worst possible situation would be for Fury to get plowed by Usyk tonight, knocked down, and then slink into the fight against Joshua, who is coming off a KO defeat. Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) looked terrible, losing his last fight and needing to be saved by the referee in round nine.
What I want to know is if Fury will hit after Usyk did tonight. An obvious fall guy would be his coach, Steward SugarHillwho mastered his win over Deontay Wilder with his mauling game plan. Regardless, SugarHill should have been dropped after Fury’s controversial win over Francis Ngannou last year. Tyson actually lost that fight, but was saved by the judges in Riyadh.
What was obvious was that SugarHill’s game plan built around mauling wasn’t working, and he had no other ideas. He was a one trick pony. I don’t know why Fury kept it after that, rather, he dumped it on the spot.
Fury has looked poor in his fights since his only big win in the last nine years, and it’s obvious that SugarHill has no ideas to improve him other than using the tired strategy he devised for the fight by Deontay. Fury has repeatedly used that Strategy in his fight against journalists Dillian Whyte, Dereck Chisora and the new 0-0 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 is going with a whole new team. The fans will get it, and Fury’s loss to Usyk tonight will be partially washed away.
Magic of Matchmaking
The reality is Fury is not that good, and never was. He was always just a fighter who ended up with matchmaking, live of his victory Wladimir Klitschko, over 39 years of age. Fury gained a lot of mileage from beating an old gunshy, who had already been defeated in two rounds by Corrie Sanders before he ever fought.
Other than that win, Fury didn’t beat anyone and was still a step above the British level, but his promoters carefully groomed him to avoid guys who would expose him to the light of day of being average.
