Heavyweight King Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury will be ringside this Saturday at Wembley Stadium in a scouting mission to watch IBF champion Daniel Dubois defend against Anthony Joshua.
It’ll be interesting to see how Fury and Joshua react to seeing their conqueror Usyk for the first time since he beat them. Joshua might find it a little more traumatic to be in Usyk’s presence because he went nuts after his loss to the Ukrainian talent two years ago, in August 2022, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
After the fight, Joshua went into mental meltdown mode, snatching Usyk’s belts, tossing them out of the ring, and then talking nonsense after grabbing the microphone to speak to the crowd. Joshua looked wild-eyed like he was capable of doing anything.
Hopefully, Joshua doesn’t spot Usyk in the crowd because he needs to be dialed in 100% on his fight against Dubois. If Joshua gets spooked by the presence of Usyk, it might throw him off his game, causing him to underperform.
Regardless of the outcome of the Joshua-Dubois fight, Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) has been promised a fight against Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs) by His Excellency Turki Alalshikh. Usyk would face Dubois (21-2, 20 KOs) next for the undisputed heavyweight championship if both win their fights.
It would have been better for the fans if the winner of the Joshua-Dubois fight faced the winner of the Fury-Usyk II clash because it would have been more sporting. The way it’s set up, we could see Joshua and Fury back into their all-British fight next year, coming off humiliating losses.
If that’s the circumstances we see, promoter Eddie Hearn will need to come up with another label for the fight because he’s saying that Fury vs. Joshua would be the biggest fight in boxing. It won’t be like that if one or both are coming off losses.
On December 21st, Usyk defends his WBA, WBC, and WBO titles against Fury in a rematch in Riyadh. It’s a fight that Fury needs to win to generate more interest in a clash between him and Joshua. However, it’s not likely to happen because Usyk has got Fury’s number after beating him last May.
