Will Tyson Fury And Oleksandr Usyk Reunite The Heavyweight Title For The First Time In More Than 20 Years?!
Are we about to see the first reunification of the heavyweight belt since 2000, when Lennox Lewis last held it? Many thought this fight would never happen. Fury had just beaten Wilder, and was taking fights here and there with Dillian Whyte to make money while not wanting to damage his legacy. Many thought Fury was going to fight Ngannou in some freak hybrid rules match, and the belts would never be reunified.
Fury also wanted to fight Anthony Joshua before he lost to Usky and have a British heavyweight slugfest in Wembley. We all saw that Joshua was totally dismantled physically and mentally by Usyk.
Tyson Fury demanding 70% of the purse does seem greedy to those who do not realize that all this fight can do is damage Fury's reputation. You can tell Fury fears Usyk because unlike a lot of the freaks of nature Fury has fought in his time, Usyk has much more in-depth technical experience. Catching the Klitschos at the end of their careers, beating superhuman athletes like Whyte, Wilder, or Chisora won't compare to the much more technical Usyk that could very possibly win by decision.
Usyk knows he has much more to gain than money from this fight. He is trying to fight huge fights on the world stage not only to promote himself but the plight of the Ukrainian people in the midst of a hot ground war in Europe. It's the biggest purse he possibly could get, and doesn't matter if the cut is 50/50 he ain't getting it unless he makes Fury enough money that even in defeat, he would be happy.
Tyson knows this fight will decide his whole legacy. So he is either going to go out rich or the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.. and rich. Usyk just is a way more calculated and smarter fighter than anyone Fury has fought since Klitschko.
Fury is being greedy because he cannot afford to take any less to put his reputation and legacy on the line. If he loses to Usyk, he can't be considered the greatest heavyweight ever. This will probably be the first camp since Wilder where he really busts his ass.
After seeing his half-brother get a win vs. Jake Paul maybe it got enough fire in Tyson's belly to really start going for it.
If you were to ask Usyk how he probably feels going into it, he would probably just tell you he is "feels."