Tyson Fury's career as a major player will be on the line tonight in his rematch with three-belt heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh.
Usyk could put 36-year-old former WBC heavyweight champion Fury out to pasture as he appears physically finished with his looks. Tyson's behavior has been strange, signaling that his loss to Uyk last May took away the best role he had left.
Fury's professional survival
The 'Gypsy King' needs the win tonight to not only put himself in position for a trilogy with Usyk (22-0, 14 KO) if that's the direction he chooses to go, but also to spark interest in mega-money. British clash against Anthony Joshua.
The worst possible situation would be Fury getting plowed by Usyk tonight, knocked out, and then heading into the fight against Joshua, who is coming off two losses. Fury (34-1-1, 24 KO) looked terrible, losing his last fight and having to be saved by the referee in the ninth round.
I want to know who Fury will blame after Usyk did it tonight. An obvious guy would be his trainer, SugarHill Steward, who engineered his victory over Deontay Wilder with his mauling game plan.
Fury has looked mediocre in his fights since his only big win in the last nine years, and it's obvious that SugarHill has no idea on how to improve him other than using the fatigue strategy he has designed for Deontay's clash. Fury used this strategy several times in his fights against journeymen Dillian Whyte, Derek Chisora and 0-0 novice Francis Ngannou.
If things don't work out tonight for Fury, he can give the royal boot to SugarHill and Andy Lee. He can then tell the media that he will be joining a completely new team. The fans would buy into it, and Fury's loss to Usyk tonight would be partially washed away.
Matchmaking magic
The reality is that Fury isn't that good, and he never was. He was always just a fighter who was done with matchmaking, living off his victory over the failed 39-year-old Wladimir Klitschko. Fury gained A LOT of mileage by beating an old guy with a gun, who had already been knocked out in two rounds by Corrie Sanders before fighting him.
Other than that win, Fury didn't beat anyone and was always a cut above the British level, but his promoters carefully compared him to avoid the guys who would have exposed him as average.
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