Tyson Fury ‘not sure’ Anthony Joshua can beat Oleksandr Usyk to keep undisputed fight alive

After coming so close to making the undisputed heavyweight title fight between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, now two mandatory challengers stand in the way of truly making it happen.

Deontay Wilder will challenge Tyson Fury on July 24 in their third and likely final encounter. The Bronze Bomber earned the right to try and reclaim his WBC heavyweight title after winning an arbitration case that then halted the undisputed title fight.

The Undisputed title fight will have to wait

That meant Joshua was left free and given he is the holder of the WBA, WBO, IBO and IBF heavyweight titles, he’s got plenty of mandatories waiting in line.

Oleksandr Usyk is at the head of that queue and it looks like he will get a shot at Joshua in September with Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium the likely venue.

Fury dismantled Wilder the last time they met and secured the WBC belt with a seventh round stoppage.

Fury smashed Wilder during a dominant display in February 2020Credit: Mikey Williams/Top Rank

He’s very confident he’ll be able to repeat that performance, but what about Joshua holding up his end of the bargain against Usyk?

The Ukrainian was the undisputed cruiserweight champion, one of only five men to have accomplished undisputed status during the four belt era.

Fury thinks Joshua has given himself a problem taking on Usyk.

“Now they’re left with Joshua stuck between a rock and a hard place,” said Tyson Fury to the Daily Mail about Hearn and Matchroom choosing to take the Usyk fight.

Usyk was the undisputed champion at cruiserweight and wants to achieve the same at heavyweight by beating JoshuaCredit: Dave Thompson/Matchroom

“I don’t think they [Matchroom] fancy the Ukrainian guy [Oleksandr Usyk] for the fight he needs in August. And with their DAZN deal, it looks now as if that will be their last fight with Joshua.

“Usyk is a southpaw, clever, technically very good. He’s smaller as a former cruiserweight champion but he handled Derek Chisora, who is physically tougher than Joshua.

“So while I’m absolutely confident of beating Wilder, I’m not so sure about AJ not losing his fight.”

Nobody could say Joshua takes easy fights if he faces UsykCredit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom

Usyk did defeat Dereck Chisora last year via unanimous decision and while Fury is right that he coped with Chisora after some early struggles, Chisora is not as big as AJ, either.

Fury has to keep up his end of the bargain in late July and then all the pressure switches to Joshua in September.

If they can both overcome their obstacles, there’s hope they can still meet by the end of 2021