John Fury believes there’s a tougher fight than Oleksandr Usyk out there for his son.
Tyson Fury currently holds the WBC World Heavyweight title – his second stint as champion in the division – and is widely considered the best around.
There’s one man who fans feel he needs to beat to cement that, though. Usyk holds the WBA, WBO and IBF belts, and the pair were close to settling the score earlier this year.
Although negotiations collapsed, there’s still a chance it happens in December.
Fury’s father – speaking to FreeBets.com – feels that there are only two fights out there right now – that undisputed fight against Usyk, or a title defence against Zhilei Zhang. He believes the latter is the tougher test.
“For me, there are only two fights there for him, one is Usyk, the other is Zhang. For my money, Zhang is the more difficult opponent.
He proved that against Joe Joyce, he is a 6ft 6in southpaw and can punch. Usyk is tricky but he doesn’t carry the firepower Zhang does. But if he can’t get those fights, hang the gloves up.”
“Zhang is every bit as dangerous as Deontay Wilder because he’s a better boxer than Wilder, Zhang can box his way in and land it that’s the difference. Great boxer, good amateur career, he impressed me Zhang.
And I was looking forward to him and Tyson getting it on because I said to Tyson, forget Usyk, he’s the danger man him [Zhang] because Usyk doesn’t have the power to bother Tyson.”
China’s Zhang is riding high on a career-best victory over Joe Joyce in London.
The hard-hitting southpaw damaged Joyce’s eye to the point of ending the contest at the halfway stage, and subsequently called out both Fury and Usyk.
That made him the frontrunner for ‘The Gypsy King’ this summer as Usyk deals with his mandatory obligations, but Joyce activated his rematch clause and upset those plans.
With Fury demanding a fight over the next few months, Zhang believes something can be worked out with Joyce to make it happen.