Should Tyson Fury come through MMA star Francis Ngannou unscathed, waiting in the wings is Oleksandr Usyk.
The two heavyweights are set to announce a historic four-belt unification fight, perhaps as soon as December 23, this weekend.
Former champion, Shannon Briggs, is in attendance to watch the crossover bout and hopes to see the undisputed fight next. He lost in the ring to the last sole heavyweight champion, Lennox Lewis, back in 1998 – one year before the Brit unified.
That was against former cruiserweight, Evander Holyfield. Speaking to FightHype, Briggs said that he once thought that Usyk – who was also formidable at 200lbs – was unstoppable.
“When Usyk first went up to heavyweight I thought he was unstoppable because he threw so many punches. But now that he’s kind of settled in, in his last fight he showed with the other dude from England that he doesn’t throw as many, and that worries me.”
Ultimately, he sees the lesser output as the factor that will allow Fury to put a ‘beatdown’ on the Ukrainian.
As you get bigger and older, you stop throwing many punches. That was his biggest asset – he lost that now. It’s a wrap. I got Fury now. I had Usyk before, but doesn’t throw enough punches anymore. Definitely a beatdown.”
Thankfully, fans will see all the predictions and analysis put to the test. If not this year, the two fighters have signed binding contracts to make it happen next.
There’s also a rematch clause that will likely see it play out again six months or so on from the first instalment. What this means for the heavyweight division remains to be seen, but at least one of the four belts will be stripped from the champion,