Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk will fight this Saturday, May 18th, for the heavyweight undisputed championship on DAZN PPV and ESPN+ Pay-per-view at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The event begins at 2:00 p.m. ET.
Lack of Buzz in the U.S.
What’s interesting is the lack of buzz for Fury vs. Usyk in the U.S. I guess this is just a UK thing, but in the States, there is zero interest in this fight, which could suggest that they view Fury as washed, motivated primarily by money at this stage of his career. People see Fury as just out for money, with nothing left, and was never as good as people thought to begin with.
Fans still view Fury under the prism of his controversial 10 round split decision win over Francis Ngannou, a fight that he looked in woeful shape at 277 lbs.
It’s hard to ignore how bad Fury looked in that fight. Then he followed it up with a well-timed injury, which him more training time for his previously scheduled February 17th fight against Usyk.
Fury’s Fading Star Power
It also doesn’t help that Fury hasn’t fought a good heavyweight since 2015. His fights in the last nine years have been against random heavyweights with little talent. Fury hasn’t fought a decent opponent since the dinosaurs roamed the earth. I don’t know what His Excellency sees in him.
For Fury-Usyk to be more compelling, Fury would have needed to have fought and beaten Anthony Joshua because he is the only good fighter in the division, besides Usyk.
If I was His Excellency, I would have held off on the undisputed championship until Fury tested himself against some of the younger heavyweights to see if he had anything left. I would have had Fury run the gauntlet against these three, and if he made it through in one piece, I’d pull the trigger on the fight with Usyk:
1. Jared Anderson
2. Filip Hrgovic
3. Daniel Dubois
Pricing and Undercard
The event costs $69.99, which is great compared to some costly events. Unfortunately, the undercard isn’t great—that’s the real negative.
Most boxing fans are paying to see the Fury-Usyk fight and sleeping through the undercard, which only has one notable fight: a rematch between Mairis Briedis and Jai Opetaia, who will fight for the IBF cruiserweight title.
Briedis is 39 and is coming off a loss to Opetaia two years ago. It’s unclear what the point is of a rematch, given that it was one-sided in Opetaia’s favor, and Briedis hasn’t fought in two years. You can argue that it would have been better off if His Excellency made David Benavidez an offer he couldn’t refuse to fight Opetaia for the vacant IBF cruiserweight title. I mean, Benavidez is certainly big and young enough at 27 to fight the 28-year-old Opetaia.
Other undercard fights:
- Joe Cordina vs. Anthony Cacace
- Frank Sanchez vs. Agit Kayael
- Sergey Kovalev vs. Robin Safar: Kovalev is 41 years old and hasn’t fought in two years. Why in the world is this guy on the card?
