Boxing legend Roy Jones spoke with Talk Sport this week, and the all-time great spoke about what he feels may well happen for Tyson Fury if the former heavyweight champ loses his December 21 return fight with current king Oleksandr Usyk (who, as we have grown to expect, showed real class and a genuine championship heart when visiting a children’s hospital in his war-torn country of Ukraine this week).
Jones said that even if Fury does get beaten again, the clamor from the British fight fans to see Fury against his long-time domestic rival Anthony Joshua will continue to be there in spades. And, Jones said, if AJ beats Daniel Dubois in their September fight, with the IBF heavyweight belt on the line, the all-British clash would make so much sense.
Now, we don’t know what another loss, to the same guy at that, would do to Fury, and maybe he would walk away and hang up his gloves. Then again, Fury might make the needed adjustments and get his revenge win over Usyk. Jones spoke about what he could see happening for a beaten Fury. Jones sees AJ defeating Dubois – “unless he takes him lightly, then it could be an upset” – and then fighting Fury.
“I feel like if Joshua wins the [IBF] title and if Usyk is able to beat Fury again, then the next fight I think people in the UK will wanna see will be Fury versus Joshua for Joshua’s title. And that’s a 50/50 fight to me. A real pick ’em.”
A fight between Joshua and Fury – and a good tagline for it would be “Finally!” – would be a ‘battle of the losers,’ yet as Jones says, who in the UK would not want to see it? But to repeat, how would Fury react if he lost again to Usyk? Would Fury risk another defeat, and to a fellow Brit at that?
Who wins if Joshua and Fury do fight, say, next summer? It is a 50/50 affair, as Jones says. But first, can Joshua get past Dubois without a hitch when they collide at Wembley?
