Topic: [ POLL ] The Unification Fight: FURY vs USYK 17th FEBRUARY 2024 (Read 1639 times)

I am sure I speak for not only myself but other members that enjoy reading the posts in this thread, I appreciate the comments but kindly refer yourself back to the OP and please re-familiarise yourself with the local rules about quoting other replies in your post.

The aim is to simply keep this thread clean and legible therefore please note the following:

Yes, they didn't capitalized on the hype, just like when there was also talks of AJ vs Wilder 2018 era if I'm not mistaken when both are still undefeated. They could have earn huge amount but they waited and waited to build that hype until AJ was upset by Ruiz.

And we are probably in the Ryan Garcia hype still as we are talking about a supposedly failed drug test by Ryan.

So boxing fans around the world might have forgotten about this fight and it might only gain traction in the last week of the fight itself.

This has dragged on for so long that it has killed most of the hype. We originally thought they were going to fight in 2022, only for them to go in separate directions over disagreements about how much money they each thought they deserved. The Saudis then came in and were able to meet their financial demands but a poor performance against Ngannou and a sparring injury delayed it further. Usyk also didn’t leave the best impression in his previous fight, where he managed to survive due to some dubious refereeing.

However not as good as he was after what we have witnessed on his fight against Francis Ngannou? Ngannou cannot be the person that will erase all of his victories against all of his opponents who are real boxers, would it not?

On what is the litmus test, we have witnessed this already against Wladimir Klitschko and Deontay Wilder, I reckon. Those victories have proven that he has passed the test. This fight against Usyk will be proof that he might be a heavyweight goat if he wins. Also, if Fury wins, I predict his next opponent will be Anthony Joshua.

I also naturally like fighters that are humble and respectful but I cannot deny that trash talkers are making events more colorful and exciting. What I don't like on Fury though is when he ducked fights like his rematch with Wlad and avoided Usyk for over a year now.

Styles make fights. Ngannou was not respected by Fury and it nearly cost him that fight. Whereas AJ is rebuilding and is showing determination to be back to his old form. So he never gave Ngannou the chance to be comfortable in that fight.

This is going to be an interesting fight. I am rooting for an Usyk win. But given the extra time Fury had, he will come up more prepared or he might even risk of cancelling the fight again if he is not performing well in his camp especially on his sparring sessions.

Excuses are only for those who losses the fight, and obviously he still emerge victories with the help of the judges. And he might have said that right after the fight and we don't know behind close doors if he is trying very hard for Francis or no.

But here he shouldn't underestimate Usyk, he knows what's at stake in this fight. He should come in here in the best shape of his fighting career. Otherwise, if he is caught sleeping again like in the Ngannou fight, Usyk will take advantage of it and going to dominate him.

I am unsure about this because by far too many neutrals and sports commentators were certain Fury did beat Wilder in their first fight even though the judges awarded it as a draw. As good as a technically gifted boxer Usyk undoubtedly is, I honestly believe if the best version of Fury fought the best version of Usyk, then Fury would win the fight.

I would also be sure that if the best versions of Fury and Usyk turned up for the fight, neither would win by a KO and the chances of either winning by TKO would almost zero therefore it would have to go to the judges scorecard.

Yes, there is a rematch clause between the two, however, there is a teaser from Saudi's powerful boxer broker, HE Turki Alalshikh that maybe they could bypass the rematch and then we will see the winner fighting Anthony Joshua,



https://twitter.com/Turki_alalshikh/status/1780336190958215638

Although Usyk has beaten Joshua twice already, the fight that we wanted to see is Fury vs Joshua for All-British unification fight.

Don't they have the rematch clause in the contract? I'm not 100% sure, but think I've read it somewhere.
If so, the controversial decision would be the best thing that could happen from the promoters perspective, as the rematch would hype-up itself.

It's fair to say that if it goes to the judges, then Usyk would come on the top as he's technically much better. Fury will have to search for a KO or score a knock down or two.

---

Not sure if this has already been posted in this thread, but here's a face to face interview between both of them (from few months back) where Fury looks more mentally dominating (to no surprise):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8elBzTOBXY

I just voted for Usyk and my preferences are based on personal sentiment and unbiased speculation. It was personal due to the fact that I do not like Fury, oh yes, I dislike a lousy mouth and an arrogant person. And as we all know, Usyk despite possessing all the qualities and belts he has, is a humble person, which is why I naturally support him.

For the second part which is based on true speculation, well, by virtue of the fight between Anthony Joshua and Usyk where the latter beat him twice and Anthony Joshua easily beat Francis Ngannou which was difficult for Fury to beat means a whole lot. If we do the arithmetic, we should know that the odds still support Usyk in this regard even though it's not the only factor that will determine this fight, nevertheless, it still counts so much.

Regardless of the number of judges they have at ringside when the fight eventually takes place, what are the chances of there being a huge row if the fight were to go the distance? We all already know in that scenario the blame of the outcome will be put on the judges because the result will inevitably be contested and will be a controversial one.

For those reasons I really hope the fight ends before getting to the judges scoring.

There are rematch clauses involved therefore Fury and Usyk are expected to have a minimum of two fights and probably a maximum of three and it would be better for there to be a winner in each fight before the judges scorecard is involved.

Does he lie a lot though? I always considered Fury to be one of the most honest in the boxing world and speaking his mind. The fact that he wasn't making any excuses after the Ngannou fight somewhat proves that.



This is bizarre, I'm getting much more feeds about Bivol Vs Beterbiev fight, which is also great, but it's not happening until 1 June, whereas Fury Vs Usyk is only 2 weeks away.
It really looks like they exhausted all the marketing budget before the original fight date, although I don't recall seeing any massive promo back them either.

---

Anyhow, originally I thought it'll be an easy fight for Fury, simply because of the reach/height advantage, but now I'm having second thoughts about it, given Fury's poor performance in Ngannou fight, as well as that he got knocked-down few times in the Wilder trilogy.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Usyk has ever got knocked-down or really struggled in a fight in his professional career (he did have some troubles against Beterbiev during their Olympic fight though, but still managed to win).
Also, I was sure Usyk is only around 180cm tall (~6.0ft) but apparently he's 190-191cm (~6.3ft) according to the internet, but think a lot of the height metrics are wrong or based on self reported data etc, so not very believable.

He said he took it serious both before and after the fight, but we all know we can't believe what he says given he lies so much, but there's also the possibility that he's just not as good as we thought he was. I guess this Usyk fight really is going to be the litmus test because there's no sleepwalking into this fight out of shape as Usyk will dismantle him and if Tyson loses then he's lost to a 'jumped up middleweight' in his own words.

There's a little over two weeks for the fight now as the promo hasn't even started yet nor have either parties been posting about it on socials.

I speculate that Tyson Fury did not go through his normal training routine against Francis Ngannou because he underestimated Francis. If he did this, we can be quite certain that Tyson Fury would have given Francis a knockout very much similar to Anthony Joshua.

On Tyson Fury's yo-yo and struggle. This is the most important fight of Tyson Fury's career, I reckon. He will be in the best muscular form for a fat boxer in his age. He might not be very muscular, however, he will also not be fat and slow for this fight.

I dunno. Tyson's weight seems to fluctuate widely and he has often got in the ring quite out of shape, or least with a lot of fat on. I don't suppose it matters if you get the win but I think Uysk is going to be a far more dangerous fighter than any of Tyson's last fights of Nhannou, Chisora and Whyte. Usyk is in shape all year around as well which is far better than Tyson's yo-yoing in weight and fitness. Given that this a is a two-fight deal I hope Tyson doesn't go into this thinking it doesn't matter as he can make changes and get retribution in the rematch should he lose.



I think the first proposed change was going to be 5 judges. First I've heard of six which does seem far too many. What's going to happen when the scorecards are all widely different. I do think the with the current three it does lead to far too many issues. Plenty of times the judges are split and often go against what the viewers thought.

In the digital age where everything that is being said and posted is scrutinised with the finest of fine combs, it is a huge risk to put up older photos of a bygone era looking very fit and healthy because it can open boxers up to ridicule. Hardly anybody will believe Fury is not going to be in top shape when he enters the ring and the same goes for Usyk too. Both boxers will be looking forward to trying to make history and they can only do so if they are in peak physical condition.

It has been mentioned before but I cannot see the logic in having six judges when they already have three. If a change was to be made I think an odd numbr would be better as the chances of awarding a draw will become slightly (less) better,

Yeah, it's silly doing it for such a high profile fight. I'm sure it would only cause more drama not less. I'm not opposed to more judges and something really needs to change with the scoring system as there's far too many robberies these days and often the judges don't seem to be watching the same fight as the viewers. Maybe they need another judge who watches the same TV feed the fans do so they can get a better look from a unique angle that neither the ref or judges can. There's also talk of implementing some sort of VAR, which I'm not sure would be great for boxing, but that additional ref who is watching the stream could maybe talk to the ring ref during the fight if he spots a foul/low blow or elbow etc.

^^ The timing though, it's a high profile fight and Sulaiman wanted to have a test run with this big fight?

Why not test it out to some lesser known fights and see how it goes? And he could have been adding more controversies in this fight, so it doesn't make sense for the WBC president to put more fuel to the fire here.

And for sure majority of boxing fans here are not going to agree with him.

Has this been discussed before here?



https://twitter.com/MichaelBensonn/status/1768563585951621370

6 judges really? I'm opposed to it, I must admit that there are really some outrage scorecard in some high profile fights, but having 6 judges to score? nah, I don't think it won't happen and it won't solved any. And for all we know, all this judges is as corrupt as the boxing body themselves like WBC.

To be fair that's a common tactic in boxing. Not only does it give the boxer a breather but it drains your opponent of energy as they have to bare their weight. Fury tried doing it to Ngannou but Francis was too heavy/strong and it backfired. Tyson will 100% use this against Usyk given he's the taller and heavier man, but I expect Tyson will play dirty in other ways like low blows and elbows, especially if it's clear he is losing.  


He also tends to post older photos from times he was more in shape. Don't believe anything unless it's guaranteed new photos or videos. Tyson could also be in excellent shape right this moment but be in a completely different one by the time the fight comes for better or worse. Usyk is in shape all year around and Tyson yo-yos and struggles to stay in shape.