Tyson Fury has taken to social media to post an image of the man who beat Oleksandr Usyk as an amateur.
The 34-year-old WBC heavyweight champion posed with Shawn Porter as he looks to secure an all-the-marbles showdown with the undefeated Ukrainian.
Fury (32-0-1, 23 KOs) called out the WBA Super, IBF, IBO and WBO champion after he beat fellow Brit Anthony Joshua last month at the Jeddah Superdome in Saudi Arabia, before issuing an ultimatum of a pot of £500million to face the former Olympic gold medallist.
.@ShowtimeShawnP Shawn Porter 5’7” welterweight guy beat @usykaa
Imagine what I’m gonna do to ya. pic.twitter.com/noq6EkVhfT
— TYSON FURY (@Tyson_Fury) September 2, 2022
Usyk was on the right end of an inexplicable split decision against Joshua – who had an outburst in the aftermath of the fight before confirming his desire to return to the ring sooner rather than later – and said that the only fight he was interested in, having added the vacant Ring Magazine title to his collection of silverware, was one with ‘The Gypsy King’.
Porter retired from boxing last year after being stopped by Terence Crawford in a challenge for the WBO world title at welterweight.
And Fury, who has often called former undisputed cruiserweight champion Usyk a middleweight, poked fun at the fact that 5’7″ ‘Showtime’ boasts a victory over the Ukrainian.
“Imagine what I’m gonna do to ya.”
Frank Warren, Fury’s UK promoter, recently revealed that the fight between the pair would happen, though Usyk has stated that it is unlikely to be staged this side of Christmas.
Warren stated that the purse split for the fight is likely to be 50-50, with it taking place in the location that would make the most financial sense for both fighters.
Saudi Arabia would be an obvious choice to host the fight which would crown the first undisputed heavyweight world champion since Lennox Lewis in 1999, but even the oil-rich country – which appears set to stage its third world heavyweight title fight, having hosted Usyk’s win over Joshua last weekend as well as ‘AJ’s’ win in the rematch against Andy Ruiz back in December 2019 at the Diriyah Arena in Diriyah, just six months after he was dropped four times in seven rounds at Madison Square Garden in New York in the June of that year – will struggle to meet Fury’s exorbitant demands.
The aforementioned Arum revealed earlier this week that he was hopeful “the biggest heavyweight fight since [Muhammad] Ali vs. [Joe] Frazier” could be made, with December 17 initially in play as the date for a mouthwatering outdoor clash in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, on the night before the FIFA World Cup final in neighbouring Qatar.