Topic: [ POLL ] The Unification Fight: FURY vs USYK 17th FEBRUARY 2024 - page 26. (Read 5484 times)

Though everything related to the fight is muted I think it will be a public relations disaster for the Saudi government promotions machine if the fight is called-off. What was Fury and his team thinking when he decided to fight Ngannou just a four months before a heavyweight unification fight? I have no doubt Usyk would have been empowered by what he saw when Ngannou took the fight to Fury but Usyk dropped a few levels in standard when he beat Dubois in th 9th round back in August.

If Fury vs Usyk goes ahead on 17th February and then Joshua vs Ngannou take place on 8th March, these fights will define the rest of the year when it comes to heavyweight boxing. Parker is not going anywhere especially after he dismantled Wilder, he deserves a title fight. If Ngannou beats Joshua (as I am sure he will), this is going to be a year of a couple more title fights.

Where has this been announced though cos I haven't seen anything from the official channels or the promoters etc? Nothing on either fighters socials nor Turki's where it's usually the first to be posted. Frank Warren has been saying we'll all be blown away by the undercard and that's certainly not a very good one. Jai Opetaia was reportedly sent home from sparring with Fury after only 5 rounds and there's rumours he knocked down Fury so if he's fighting then what are they doing sparring together at such a late stage?

https://boxing-social.com/news/jai-opetaia-leaves-tyson-fury-camp/
https://www.boxingnews24.com/2024/01/rumor-mill-churns-opetaias-team-denies-fury-knockdown-rumors/


I think there should be a new poll: Will this fight go ahead on the 17th. It's only three weeks away now and we've still got nothing. I think Fury is probably desperately trying to get fit/in shape behind the scenes but might know he isn't ready for what is gonna be one of the toughest if not the toughest fight of his career. Maybe the Francis performance has knocked his confidence. To be honest, I think they might be better off doing this fight after the AJ/Ngannou one and then they can announce the winner of that fight will get a shot at either Fury or Usyk again.

I cannot speak for others but in my opinion it is clear Fury will damage his legacy beyond imagination if he pulls out of the fight. Why would he play mind games for the sake of getting to this stage only to withdraw from the fight?

I completely agree with you, something does not seem right about the way the lack of promotion is playing out but even more than that the lack of comments from both boxers has been noted too and I do not think it is down to them concentrating on their training.

Many are still enraged with how the undercard are put up for this fight. I think everyone here as well can't believed that a wash up fighter is there for the biggest fight in this division. To the point that they are saying that this is the worst undercard ever, ouch.

Letting it drag on without promo doesn't make any sense unless there is issues behind the scenes or they're just concentrating on the camp, but something still seems off to me. Frank Warren said something worrying at the end of this interview earlier when asked about the fight and said something along the lines of I hope Tyson doesn't pull out and doesn't believe that's the case but he really doesn't seem that confident: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht0yY2mzHB4

The fight is less than a month away now and still no undercard or press conference announced. If they don't announce something before the end of the month my money is on the fight not happening. They need to get moving with this so the AJ/Ngannou fight doesn't overshadow it then and soon as this fight is done they can start ramping up the promo for that the following month.

It could be the case they (Fury and Usyk) will let all this drag on without much fanfare for several weeks more and then go on a publicity campaign to bring more of a spotlight on the fight. Also, eventually when the two boxers get on a stage to face-off at the weight-in, that will be a significant moment. If that is their plan (not wanting to overhype, I think their strategy will fail).

If the teams behind the Fury vs Usyk fight are looking at the buzz surrounding the Joshua vs Ngannou fight, they have to accept there is a problem. I think there should be far more anticipation and excitement at the unification fight but Ngannou had added a new dimension to the heavyweight scene (for now at least).

Yes, most likely Kovalev is just looking for a his last pay check here and he was just lucky that he was still given a fight in the undercard here. But then the PPV though, yeah I believed its going to be $80 as this is the biggest fight in Heavyweight. But the undercard is really disappointed, however, as @hilariousetc said, the Saudi doesn't care about making money here, all this wealthy person wanted to see the best of the best in Usyk and Fury.

If they are going to lose money, it's fine with them and it's good to the sports of boxing as I have said. At least everyone is happy as they are making money and hopefully we can see fights more often, undisputed or just two great boxers, specially in the lower weight class and not just for the HW division.

Nah, that's a stand-alone fight in itself and neither fighter will want to be on Fury's undercard when they're both chasing fights with him. Until I see the press conference I'm still sceptical of this fight going ahead, but they did at least release the poster for it which I'm not sure they would do if they thought it might get called off, though I guess either fighter could pull out of their own volition.


The PPVs in the USA are always a rip off and are usually 3-4x the times of it in the UK. I think this fight could come at a premium though given it's a historical undisputed but the Saudi's don't really care about making their money back and will always make a loss from these type of showdowns as no amount of PPV revenue is gonna cover the boxers fees.

Kovalev is 40 years old and beyond shot. He was already considered washed up when he was cherry-picked by Canelo, and that was many years ago. With all the legal problems he has had it doesn't surprise me that he is now desperate for a paycheck.

I was considering buying the PPV but if it's going to be $80, it kind of feels like a ripoff even if the main event is a historic heavyweight fight.

This is an interesting trivia that I just found out now when one fan posted that Usyk and Beterbiev fought during their amateur days and even though Usyk beat Beterbiev it is established in this fight that Usyk has weakness in his body, Dubois scored a knockdown through body shot against Usyk when they fought recently and Beterbiev also did it when they fought in the amateur.
If Fury will include the Beterbiev - Usyk fight in scouting Usyk he'll know that Usyk has a weakness and he can exploit when they fight next month


Heavy (91kg) QF- Berterbiev Artur (RUS) VS Usyk Oleksandr (UKR) -2011 AIBA World Champs

think the fight will not actually happen?
i think so too. the date is so close already yet nothing is being hyped online. the fight will be held in Saudi, this is a place where people are giving away gold bars. the richest country in this region, it can't flop this way for it would only mean, they are pretty much interested in Frank Ngannou than Fury and Usyk.

if they want to make this event noisier, my suggestion is to put AJ vs Ngannou on the co-main event.

But what's the source for that? I don't think it's official as I haven't seen anything from a reputable outlet or the promotors. In an interview earlier today Frank Warren said they can't give any names yet but promises it will be huge (though I'd take that with a pinch of salt but I expect the undercard to be better than the above mentioned).



I still don't think there's been any hype. All we've had so far is a poster and no real comments from anyone involved or an undercard yet. The AJ/Ngannou fight is dominating talks so far and that fights even further away. They need to get the press conference sorted and that's when things will heat up. Fury will be a gobshite as usual wanting to grab headlines.

Well, I think the hype only started to pick up in the past few days. Before that there was hardly a whisper regarding this fight and it was not being mentioned as much as it should. Regarding who Fury will fight if he wins or who Usyk will fight if he wins, I think beyond Parker and Joshua (and now Ngannou) there are not many heavyweights out there that can either or fill a void.

Even if Usyk is the underdog, he cannot be that far behind because the high standards of Fury have dropped to unbelievably low levels.

One month to go before this fight and there is already lots of hype for this fight because if Fury wins, he will probably get to fight Ngannou and settle their rivalry once more on who is the best heavyweight fighter in their time. But obviously, since Usyk doesn't know how he will gonna truly deal with Fury once they get inside the ring, he still is the underdog in this bout since we all know Fury has more hidden talents once they fight because he has lots of styles on how to get away and take those power punches as if they were nothing because of his unique and yet decisive defensive strategies.

Usyk though has posted on his Twitter some kettleball training, I can't remember how heavy is it, but he was just throwing and then catching it. But the poster though, it reminds me if BrokeBack mountain movie, Lol, you can search for the synopsis,  .

I've search for the undercard and this is what I've found:

Joe Cordina vs. Anthony Cacace
Sergey Kovalev vs. Robin Sirwan
Isaac Lowe vs. Hasibullah Ahmadi
Moses Itauma vs. TBA Bakhodir
Jalolov vs. TBA
David Nyika vs. TBA

(https://www.boxingnews24.com/2024/01/fury-usyk-undercard-unveiled-opetaia-vs-briedis-2-on-february-17th-in-saudi-arabia/)

Lame undercard though, seriously Kovalev? And then Cordina?

Is that the best that they can put in this great fight?

If it gets to a points decision it could all come down to a dubious scorecard from at least one judge that could serious alter the outcome of the fight making it opposite to what the masses concluded. The first Fury/Wilder fight resulted in a draw but I along with literally every person I know thought Fury won the fight even though he hit the canvas. How it was scored a draw was (and still is) hard to believe. The same for Fury vs Ngannouu, it seems by far the majority of people commenting on the fight believe Ngannou won.

Regardless of Joshua or Ngannou winning, I hope it does not come down to a points decision.

With all the mind games played by Fury, it is easy to forget there are other boxers waiting in the wings for a chance. All of a sudden Joshua is back in contention for a world title fight when it looked like he might not get that chance again. There is even talk about him wanting to fight Usyk for the third time.

What cannot be underestimated is the way Parker dismantled Wilder last month and the threat Ruiz poses if he gets back in the ring. Parker not only defeated Wilder he was also the first boxer to beat Ruiz. I think Parker deserves a chance at a championship belt but if Ngannou beats Joshua then the next fight could be between Parker and Ngannou.

Fury and AJ can still happen even if they both lose. Might make it easier to make if there's no belts on the line and Tyson loses his zero, though there's lots of fights to be made between the four including AJ/Uysk trilogy or the Fury/Ngannou rematch which Ngannou has been vocal he wants next.


Yeah, they'll surely have to step on the gas now the Ngannou/AJ presser is over. As for tickets it's in Saudi so it wont sell out as most are just given away to Saudis looking to fill up seats. Not many people seem to travel all the way to Saudi for the fights and it's usually 90% Saudis and a load of invited celebs.


Usyk probably wouldn't get a spectacular KO but he could wear Fury down like he did to Dubois. I think it's either Usyk on points or Tyson KO. Tyson will probably play dirty with lots of leaning and go for some low blows, especially if Usyk is getting the better of him.

They have shared maximum a poster or two. I just remember and compare it with Fury vs Ngannou fight. Remember how much it was discussed, how much was time and effort was spend on promotion. That Mike Tyson as a coach story, all those pictures of joint training and etc. That great promo fun video. Where is all that with Usyk and Fury? I have no doubts that tickets gonna be sold in minutes, but with their pay checks, PPV numbers have to be great if everyone wants to earn. Imho that will be hard to achieve with one month left.


I have also feeling that the fight is going to be boring. Usyk wont be able to knockout Fury, and will work on gaining points. Fury will try to catch and damage him with single or double strikes. For sure the fight will go full distance.

There's supposed to be a Fury vs Joshua after that one, but that will probably depend on Fury if he loses the belt and feels depressed because of it, or not.
There were some recent opinions based on Fury's own words that he's afraid he's too old and out of shape for the coming fight with Usyk, but that might be just a rumor spread to influence the bets. I think that they'll fight. They were talking about it for years and the event is going to pay good money. If Fury is feeling old and wants to retire it's even better because it's going to be that last cash injection for him.

True. Just the other day I was thinking about this: silence, as if this fight had been crossed out from the schedule and everyone had forgotten about it. Thank God we see activity.


Probably bookmakers consider the probability that Ngannou will win by knockout as not the smallest - approximately 25%:

1.15 - 4.12

It’s unlikely that they believe in the possibility that he will win on points, which means these quotes almost 100% reflect the likelihood that he will win by knockout.
For me personally, the odds look uninteresting for both sides.