Tyson Fury scraped by a scare against Francis Ngannou to solidify a career-defining fight against Oleksandr Usyk.
The ten-round crossover bout didn’t see Fury at his best, and has forced many in the sport to change their views on how he will fare against the Ukrainian. That includes Barry McGuigan.
Speaking to Pro Boxing Fans, the Hall of Fame fighter said that Fury ‘letting himself down’ against Ngannou must be considered when breaking down the fight with Usyk.
“You have to take that performance into account. Francis Ngannou is a very strong guy, robotic, one-dimensional, got a good looping front hook. Other than that he didn’t really have the ability to throw quickfire combinations, it was just the same thing repetitively and, surprisingly, the world heavyweight champion got knocked down by that shot.
Let’s be honest, Tyson’s been on the floor I don’t know how many times. So he hasn’t got the greatest chin. He got up and he was much more circumspect for the remainder, but I still thought he won the fight, but it wasn’t impressive. To an extent he let himself down.”
McGuigan believes that how Fury looked has knocked the undisputed odds back to even having previously seen Fury as the favourite.
“And so you take that on in relation to Usyk and you think well you would have always made [Fury] a favourite in that fight, but less so after that fight. You have to bring Usyk back into it again. It’s very much an even money fight. If he fights like he fought against Francis Ngannou, Usyk beats him.”
Fury and Usyk will face off on February 17 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.