Carl Froch thinks that the announcement of an undisputed bout between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk is a ‘master plan’, but is hesitant to fully believe it happens.
Fury is to fight former MMA titlist and boxing debutant, Francis Ngannou, on October 28 in Riyadh. It is not a bout many were expecting to see, and has been rubbished by some corners of the sport for the lack of jeopardy in it for the heavyweight champion.
Whilst that event has been building, Fury’s promoter Frank Warren has also managed to negotiate and announce a historic undisputed fight with Oleksandr Usyk.
That will see all four major world titles on the line as and when the pair come to blows, with a date announcement promised after the Ngannou bout.
Speaking to bettingsites.co.uk, former unified super middleweight champion Froch said he thinks Fury vs Ngannou is a ‘play fight’ and a bit of a ‘joke shop’ fight but people will tune in because of the Usyk announcement.
“It’s not real boxing, it’s not proper boxing but I think we are now starting to understand it. I think maybe it was a cunning plan by Frank Warren – because what he’s done is got this Ngannou fight lined up that boxing purists are not very happy about but in the meantime, he’s announced Tyson Fury is fighting Oleksandr Usyk.
So people are going to watch the Ngannou fight with one eye on the shape and the performance – thinking of what’s around the corner with the fights quite close together.”
He went on to call it a ‘bit of a masterplan, genius’ by Warren, but cast doubt on the undisputed fight ever happening.
“Because at the end of the day, Fury is getting paid his career-biggest payday for a ‘move around’ and I’ve said before I’d have done the same in my career.
Lucky for [Fury], Frank Warren and boxing that Fury has announced he’s fighting Usyk – because that’s very important that that fight happens. I’m still a little bit sceptical it will.”
The fight with Ngannou will be shown on TNT Sports pay-per-view on October 28 in Riyadh.