We should have known it was too good to be true.
The undisputed heavyweight title fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk was set for Feb. 17. Making the fight was a painful road. Negotiations failed once in 2023. When the fight did get signed, the initial date of Dec. 23 fell through after Fury suffered a small cut in an Oct. clash with Francis Ngannou. But all that was behind us. Earlier this week, a mere 14 days out from Feb. 17, everything was peachy. Boxing media cautiously began counting down to the fight, making predictions and previews.
Alas, boxing fans cannot have nice things. In what was presumably one of his last sparring sessions before the fight (sparring typically winds down about two weeks ahead of a bout), Fury got cut again. This one a larger, nastier gash on the eyelid than the one picked up against Ngannou. Fury was cut in that same spot during a 2019 fight with Otto Wallin, with the gash stretching to such grisly proportions that the fight was nearly stopped. Fury finished the final round with an ocean of blood around his eye. This cut, while not quite that awful, needs time to heal. So Feb. 17 for the Usyk fight is out. The new date is May 18, 2023.
It is not a good time to be Tyson Fury. He is undefeated, sure, with 34 wins and 24 knockouts. He might be the lineal heavyweight champion. He has also survived depression, suicidal thoughts and ballooned to 400 pounds. All of this has kept him away from boxing. Then he returned to the ring to best Deontay Wilder in a pulsating trilogy. The man has a Netflix show about his family, making him one of the most recognizable figures in boxing. He is married with more kids than I care to count and is rich beyond measure. Yet Fury now finds himself at his lowest point. Despite Fury and Queensbury Promotions releasing photos of the cut he picked up to satisfy the skepticism of the public, boxing fans are reacting as if Fury faked the cut.
Why? Since the third fight with Wilder in late 2021, which Fury won by late knockout in one of the best heavyweight bouts ever, Fury has underperformed. He pummeled a washed up Derek Chisora in late 2022, someone Fury already beat twice without controversy. That fight was so unnecessary that people still make jokes about when Fury will fight Chisora for the fourth time. In the meantime, Usyk beat Anthony Joshua twice, taking Joshua’s three heavyweight title belts. It was the perfect setup for Fury-Usyk: Fury had the lineal heavyweight title, Usyk had the belts. The winner of that fight would be the first undisputed heavyweight champion in a quarter-century.
But in 2023, Fury dragged out negotiations, asking Usyk to accept a 30 percent split of the purse, then coming up with more demands when Usyk agreed. The fight fell through, a huge blow to the boxing world. Finally they signed for a December fight–but, Fury insisted, he had to fight MMA star Ngannou first in October. Given that Ngannou had never boxed professionally, few took that fight seriously, seeing it as a warm-up for the Usyk fight. Somehow though, Fury managed to get himself knocked down en route to a win that was so close that it embarrassed the entire sport of boxing. Ngannou and legions of MMA fans, emboldened by the knockdown, claimed that he was robbed. Despite winning, Fury–by near-consensus the best heavyweight boxer of the generation–had seriously damaged his legacy by nearly losing to a novice.
This series of events in the life of Fury falls miserably short of what boxing fans expect from their champions. Almost losing to Ngannou was bad enough on its own, but that fight never even should have happened before the far more significant unification bout with Usyk. Fury and Usyk are each in their late 30s now. Before too long, one or both of them will be diminished enough for the air to leak out of that fight. As boxing fans see it, while Fury has been screwing around with fights no one is asking for and failing to destroy an outsider from the MMA world, the whole sport gets embarrassed.
If Fury were a more gracious champion, he might be getting more respect from the boxing world. But before all of his fights, he spews a profane stream of trash talk. He has repeatedly called the smaller Usyk “rabbit,” “gappy teeth,” “sausage,” and the like. When David Haye had to put off a fight with Fury in 2013 due to a cut, Fury mocked him mercilessly. Now the shoe is on the other foot. The cut is indisputably real. Fury had no choice but to postpone the fight while he heals. But boxing fans are so tired of this fight being delayed for unnecessary reasons that they need somewhere to point their ire after the latest delay. Fury, having burned all his goodwill, is the perfect scapegoat.
This fight with Usyk might be the biggest of Fury’s career; despite his brilliant moments, Fury’s resume is thin, more so than Usyk’s. As the naturally smaller man, this fight is like a free roll of the dice for Usyk. If he wins, he will be elevated to an all-time-great. If he loses, he gets credit for taking on the challenge of fighting a much bigger man. Fury has to win just to maintain the reputation he already holds (and has done his best to ruin in the past two years). Many are already calling his legacy as a great heavyweight into question after the last two years of antics. The only way Fury can get everybody to shut up is by beating Usyk.
Fury has a few extra months to think about what is at stake.