Tyson Fury’s trainer, SugarHill Steward, has branded it absurd that his fighter would duck Oleksandr Usyk, or vice versa.
The negotiations between the pair for an undisputed heavyweight title fight fell flat this week, and have been confirmed as done without a deal.
In the aftermath, Fury has accused Usyk of being a ‘coward’ whilst many fans and pundits believe the Brit set unrealistic demands to get out of the fight.
Speaking to iD Boxing News, Steward was adamant neither fighter was scared.
“To be totally honest, I’ll put this straight out real simple. For myself and for anybody else that has any good sense, Tyson Fury running or ducking from Oleksandr Usyk, or Oleksandr Usyk running or ducking from Tyson Fury, to me it’s kind of absurd.
Both of these men have been fighting their whole lives. They fought everybody. Been through whoever. You think they would be scared to fight each other? What’s to be scared of? They’ve been in there with the best of me. ”
“In boxing, nobody is scared to be fighting nobody. They’ve been doing this their whole lives, so what’s to get scared of now? Making more money?”
The boxing public have mostly made their minds up, but it’s unlikely the full story will ever be known, even with each promoter providing receipts and giving their opinions.
What is clear it that both champions must now move on and get active.
For Usyk, that means serving mandatories, of which he has three. First up is the WBA’s Daniel Dubois, who has confirmed he will be pushing for the fight.
In Fury’s case, things aren’t so mapped out. The WBC have no mandatory challenger to be ordered to contest for his belt, having left that to a fight between Deontay Wilder and Andy Ruiz to decide. The two former champions seem no further forward in making that happen.
His promoter, Frank Warren, hasn’t ruled out retirement, although rival Eddie Hearn is pushing for a fight with Anthony Joshua in the summer.