Tyson Fury will not be fighting Oleksandr Usyk for all of the heavyweight marbles anytime soon, and sadly his next fight will not be vs Anthony Joshua either.
Usyk defeated Anthony Joshua for a second time last month to retain his IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight titles and claim the Ring heavyweight title recently vacated by Fury. It also cleared the way for a potential unification showdown with Britain’s WBC and lineal champion. Not so fast though.
Usyk says he wants to properly recover from that AJ rematch and wait until early 2023 for a Fury clash, leaving Tyson without an opponent. That led to Fury offering a WBC and lineal heavyweight title shot to Joshua for December 3. The base terms (60-40 split in favour of Fury) were agreed, but once again the deal did not happen.
That then led Fury to go to a tried and trusted formula for his next fight, yet another meeting with Dereck Chisora. This will be their trilogy fight and Fury vs Chisora 3 will go down at London’s Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday December 3 (BT Sport Box Office PPV in the UK).
Why Fury vs Chisora 3?
While the decision for Fury to fight Chisora again – some eight years after their one-sided second meeting – brought howls of derision from a lot of fight fans and pundits. It was though on many levels a smart decision.
‘The Gypsy King’ is apparently being lined up for that Usyk unification match in late February or early March 2023. With that in mind he needs a stay-busy, tune-up fight – not one which brings a huge risk of defeat or injury.
Why not Fury vs Joshua?
Great question, and not one which presents an easy answer. While of course there is talk about who does want the fight and who doesn’t, it appears Joshua’s many commercial deals and commitments might have been the biggest hurdle to overcome.
As we said, the base terms were all agreed and reportedly all the respective broadcasters (BT Sport, DAZN, ESPN) were on board and on the same page. For now that all-British megafight remains but a dream.
