George Groves has detailed why he remains doubtful as to whether the undisputed showdown between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk will go ahead, or if Fury will ever enter the ring again.
Fury struggled to overcome Cameroonian debutant, Francis Ngannou, last month, walking away with a split-decision victory after suffering a knockdown in the third round.
Now, the undefeated Brit is poised for one of his biggest tests to date – taking on Usyk for all four of the heavyweight belts.
Despite contracts being signed, former WBA Super-Middleweight Champion Groves told Boxing King Media that he doesn’t expect the clash to go ahead.
“He might retire. It might be the last time we see him. It’s not a dig.”
“It makes no sense that he has a life and death fight with a cage fighter, who has been boxing for weeks, and that he had to get up off of the floor to win.
He clearly wasn’t prepared and maybe he’d done a bit of training, but he hadn’t done any real training, any competitive training, his mindset was not there. People have said time and time again that when people doubt Fury, that’s when he rises to the occasion and he has proven that in the past, but does he really want to do that now, at thirty-five-years-old with all the things that he has achieved?”
Groves has also reiterated this belief on TalkSPORT, saying he doesn’t believe ‘The Gypsy King’ fights again. Should that not be the case, he said an Ngannou rematch may be more likely.
“He has got this fight looming now with Oleksandr Usyk, who I believe beats him and I thought that before seeing him fight Ngannou the other week. It will be major prize money and massive kudos for beating that guy [Usyk], but does that outweigh the risk of losing to him and living with that after?”
“I think that we are much more likely to see an Ngannou rematch, where Fury has done a bit more training than a last-man-standing fight against Usyk.”
A fight date for Fury-Usyk is expected to be released this week.