Evander Holyfield has voiced his opinion on what would happen if Oleksandr Usyk or Anthony Joshua ever faced Tyson Fury.
The former undisputed cruiserweight and heavyweight champion is on the ground in Saudi Arabia ahead of Joshua’s heavyweight rematch against Usyk.
The Brit faces Ukraine’s former undisputed cruiserweight king Usyk for a second time on Saturday, at the Jeddah Superdome, bidding to become a three-time world champion and recapture the unified WBA Super, IBF, IBO and WBO world titles.
A win for Joshua, who was dethroned by Usyk in the pair’s first fight at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London last September, could set up an all-British showdown against the aforementioned WBC champion Fury.
When speaking to Boxing Social, ‘The Real Deal’, who was ridiculed for returning in an exhibition bout last year, praised Fury:
“Tyson Fury has shown that he’s a great fighter – out of all the fighters he’s the one that is able to make adjustment and making adjustment makes you better.
I don’t say that they couldn’t beat him, but the fact that the matter is ain’t nobody beat him because the fact is he makes adjustments.
Nobody has beaten him. Until somebody beats him, there’s no way you can say somebody is going to do it.
The art of the game is the art of the game and if you have never been beat then you’ve never shown that you can be.”
Holyfield is currently a boxing adviser to heavyweight prospect Zhang Zhilei, who takes on Filip Hrgovic of Croatia in a final eliminator for Usyk’s IBF title on the undercard of the clash between him and ‘AJ’.
On whether Joshua would have a better chance against Fury than Usyk, the 59-year-old answered:
“Everyone has a plan until they get in there.
Everyone thinks they can win until they can’t.
Joshua is taller than Usyk and they are both strong so then it would come down to speed. I think Anthony Joshua is the perfect fighter for him [Fury] because height-wise, it’s the same. Everything becomes the same when those two fight – it comes down to who’s the strongest.
That looks like it favours Anthony Joshua, but until it happens, it will just be a guessing game.”