Fury, Usyk, Joshua, Wilder And Era of Duckers

By Kunle Awosiyan

All these four boxers, except one will be at the bottom of the ladder in the rating of boxing greats.

Having conquered the cruiserweight category as the undisputed and now a unified heavyweight champion, Oleksandr Usyk will definitely occupy a prominent place on the boxing ladder.

Again the Ukranian has never been found to have ducked a fight. The cat as he is fondly called is of small size but so adventurous with a very large heart.

He beat former unified champion, Anthony Joshua back-to-back and he is currently occupying the first position in the Ring Magazine pound for pound.

He has done a lot for boxing and will go down in history as one of the record breakers.

However, Tyson Fury despite that he is the WBC belt holder has got some bad records of consistent ducking of fights, including the recent one against Usky where he wanted the Ukranian to take 30 per cent share of the bout for the undisputed fight that never happened.

Even when Usky was ready, the world could see the slippery behaviour of the Gypsy King. The Briton was doing the fight on podcast, abusing Usyk as too small for his size to fight.

The arrangement to see a new undisputed champion, 20 years after Lennox Lewis won it was scuttled by Fury. He is a ducker even though he is a ferocious fighter. He thinks more of money now than title, having become a lineal champion in his trilogy with Deontay Wilder.

He proposed a fight against Anthony Joshua about a year ago with condition that the deal should be sealed within two weeks. How on earth can a professional hurriedly sign a contract without looking at the papers thoroughly?

He stopped the deal abruptly calling Joshua a bodybuilder that is not ready to compete. Again, a week ago, he posted on his Instagram that he had sent a contract paper to Joshua for a fight in September.

Joshua laughed it off because he knew Fury’s deal was never well processed. There is no doubt that Fury is more favoured against any boxer of this era, the Gypsy King is an unserious businessman.

For Wilder, a bold boxer, he is a tactical ducker. He is supposed to have had a fight with a prime Joshua about five years ago but he failed to show 100 per cent interest when the Briton was in town.

Now he is looking ahead of a Mega fight with Joshua in Saudi Arabia. It is a non-title fight but a money spinning faceoff. Will it happen?only God knows.

Joshua has always claimed that he is not afraid of anybody in the elite group but he is not so pushful as to whom he wants to fight. It is clear that he does boxing for money now and not title. He wants to remain a fine boy with no health issue after his boxing career.

Although his manager, Eddie Hearn, had said that there is a possibility of Joshua/Wilder in Saudi, much is not being said on this match.

A few weeks ago, the news of Joshua having a rematch with his former rival and compatriot, Dillian Whyte in August flew around the media but three days ago Joshua denied any knowledge of him facing Whyte.

It wasn’t like this in the era of Muhammad Ali nor that of Mike Tyson nor Lennox Lewis, Evander Holfield, Riddick Bowe.

Ali fought Joe Frazier three times, Leon Spinks twice, Ken Norton three times and fought all the great contenders in his era, including George Foreman.

Lewis fought Holyfield twice, Hazim Rahman twice. Holyfield fought Roddick Bowe Thrice and fight Mike Tyson twice. Only fight that never happened was Bowe/Lewis.

Even during the Klitschko brothers era, boxers did not waste time signing papers for real deal and real boxing. The Klitschkos held the belts for almost a decade, fighting all challengers.

But today’s boxers are duckers. It’s irritating. The four strong contenders should fight themselves at least twice.

Wilder and Fury had recorded trilogy, Joshua and Usky had recorded double. The world will like to see Joshua/Wilder 1 and 2, Usyk/Fury 1 and 2, Joshua/ Fury 1 and 2, Wilder/Usyk 1 and 2 to make this era interesting.