Tyson Fury is an undefeated two-time world heavyweight champion who is, in the eyes of many, one fight away from cementing his legacy as the best of a generation.
‘The Gypsy King’ was involved in negotiations to face fellow champion, Oleksandr Usyk, earlier this year to crown the first undisputed heavyweight champion in two decades.
Despite it being one of if not the most important fight the sport has to offer, talks failed, and now there is jeopardy as to whether it ever happens.
The first obstacle was Usyk’s WBA mandatory defence against Daniel Dubois. The Ukrainian was dropped and hurt in the fight, but the shot was immediately ruled low. He would go on to stop Dubois in the ninth to retain his belts in an otherwise one-sided performance.
Speaking on the controversial punch, another WBA heavyweight champion in Roy Jones Jr said that because it was borderline it was at the referee’s discretion.
“I understand Daniel probably felt like it was a body shot, or it was borderline, but the fact that it was borderline gives the referee the option to do whatever he feels best.
So he played it safe and said ‘we’ll count it as a low blow because it was borderline.’ Now were there trunks probably higher than they should’ve been? Yes, both of them. But that’s boxing.”
Jones went onto say that he was happy with the result, if only because an undisputed fight between Fury and Dubois – the plan of action for promoter Frank Warren should the Brit have won – would be as one-sided as it gets.
“Usyk is unbeaten. We don’t wanna see Dubois fight Fury, we know Fury gonna kill the boy. We cool, but we don’t wanna see that. In the end, because a jab took you out, we cool that Usyk got the decision.”
For now, the hopes of a four-belt clash between Fury and Usyk remain alive, but the next mandatory challenger for the Ukrainian, Filip Hrgovic, will do what he can to spoil the party.