Although Usyk stands in the way, Fury-Joshua seems closer than ever
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Lineal/WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury has huge business to attend to in a long-awaited four-belt unification fight for the undisputed crown against three-belt titleholder Oleksandr Usyk in the main event of a pay-per-view extravaganza on May 18 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, but Anthony Joshua still looms.
While Fury and Usyk are tied to each other in a two-fight deal that calls for an immediate rematch, regardless of the winner in May, there is no guarantee the second fight will happen right away — especially if His Excellency Turki Alalshikh, the Saudi power broker in charge of what fights the country’s General Entertainment Authorities spends it considerable funds on, decides he wants a different fight.
The biggest conceivable heavyweight fight beyond the undisputed showdown is very obviously Fury (if he beats Usyk) to at long last square off with British countryman and two-time unified titlist Joshua, the biggest star in boxing not named Canelo Alvarez.
The Fury and Joshua camps have discussed the fight at various times but it has not come to fruition for various reasons. Why it hasn’t happened depends on which side one is to believe.
But with Joshua’s three-knockdown, second-round pulverization of Francis Ngannou, the former UFC champion, in a knockout of the year contender on March 8 in the main event of the “Knockout Chaos” card, the anticipation for Fury-Joshua is once again palpable.
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