Boxing
Tyson Fury beat Deontay Wilder in the pair’s thrilling trilogy fight in Las Vegas, and a former British heavyweight has since had his say on how Anthony Joshua would fare against the Gypsy King, reports express.co.uk.
David Haye, yesterday dismissed Joshua’s chances of beating Fury after ‘The Gypsy King’ came through his thrilling trilogy fight with Deontay Wilder.
Fury recovered from twice being knocked down in the fourth round to finally overcome his bitter rival in the 11th, after knocking him to the canvas for the third time.
Who Fury fights next will seemingly depend on the outcome of mandatory WBC challenger Dillian Whyte’s fight with Otto Wallin on October 30, but regardless, there will be no clash with Joshua in the immediate future.
That was after Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, confirmed that the 31-year-old had triggered his rematch clause with Oleksandr Usyk, who outclassed ‘AJ’ last month to take his WBA, IBF, WBO, and IBO heavyweight titles.
That fight is expected to take place in the spring of 2022, with the British fighter said to be open to the possibility of fighting Usyk in Kiev, Ukraine.
Hearn has still said he’s confident the much-awaited bout between Fury and Joshua will happen at a later date, but whether it will be a unification bout for world heavyweight titles could now be dependent on whether the latter can avenge his latest defeat.
Haye, who like Usyk won world titles at both cruiserweight and heavyweight level, has previously backed Joshua to beat Fury but after watching the dramatic night in Las Vegas, has done a u-turn.
“I think off the strength of that performance, it would be very tough for AJ,” Haye told BT Sport.
“Having watched AJ’s last performance against Usyk, the shots that Fury took down the pipe from Wilder, he was able to get back up and rough him up.
“The fact that AJ stood at range with Usyk having a boxing match, is AJ going to beat Fury in a boxing match? I don’t believe so.”
Prior to Fury’s win over Wilder, his co-promoter, Bob Arum, cast doubt on a potential ‘Battle of Britain’ between his client and Whyte, both 33. He told iFL TV: “That could be a big, big fight for Tyson, particularly if we held it in UK.
“That is not out of the question, Dillian Whyte is a capable heavyweight and a fight against Tyson Fury or Wilder (or) whoever wins would be a very interesting fight.”
Arum added: “Last time he (Whyte) was mandatory, he fought (Alexander) Povetkin and got knocked on his ass.
“I look for Wallin to clearly beat Whyte, so I’m not even taking it into consideration.” Whyte was beaten by Povetkin in August 2020 but seven months later, avenged his defeat by stopping the Russian with a clinical display. Should he prevail against Swedish fighter Wallin, 30, Whyte is expected to try and ramp up negotiations to fight Fury.
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