British heavyweight veteran, Derek Chisora, believes the proposed undisputed title fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk is now dead in the water.
Fury was last seen in the ring against Chisora in a clash which was criticised by the public for both it’s original proposal and the subsequent one-sided beating.
Since then, Fury has been linked to a historic clash with Usyk, where the winner would become the first four-belt undisputed champion in the history of the division. However, talks failed to produce a deal and as a result both men pursued alternate opponents.
Despite rumours that Fury and Usyk may challenge one another next year in Saudi Arabia, Chisora told Seconds Out that the opportunity has passed and that Usyk’s mandatory challangers will get in the way.
“It’s not going to happen, I don’t believe it will, ever.
Filip Hrgovic is the mandatory for the IBF, he’s [Usyk] got Daniel Dubois and after that Hrgovic is going to call his mandatory, so I don’t think that it’s going to happen.
I just believe that there are loads of fighters that are waiting for their mandatories, I don’t believe that we are going to see that fight happening at any time because Fury is doing this fight [with Francis Ngannou] now.”
Usyk will attempt to overcome the first of his mandatory obligations when he fights WBA regular champion, Daniel Dubois, at the end of the month, then IBF ranked number one, Filip Hrgovic, will be next in line. Finally, the winner of Joe Joyce’s September rematch with Zhilei Zhang will become the mandatory challenger with the WBO and likely challenge for Usyk’s titles next year.
As for Fury, he’ll face ex-UFC champion, Francis Ngannou, in a crossover bout in Saudi Arabia on October 28.