Matthew Macklin: Tyson Fury might not be confident about Oleksandr Usyk’s speed

With word overnight that negotiations between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk are dead, former middleweight contender and current boxing pundit Matthew Macklin says it’s “starting to look like” Fury simply didn’t want to fight Usyk

Macklin suggests that Usyk’s style — particularly his speed — may be something Fury isn’t confident facing:

“Without knowing all the details, it’s starting to look like Fury doesn’t fancy this fight,” Macklin wrote on social media. “I picked Fury to beat Usyk, but maybe he’s not confident. He’s happy facing big hitters, but maybe he knows the speed of Usyk could give him nightmares. What other reason could there be?”

Whatever the reason for Fury vs Usyk not happening in April at Wembley Stadium, the general sentiment — not unanimous or anything — is that it appears Fury (30-0-1, 24 KO) simply didn’t want the fight. Whether it was the money, the matchup, a disinterest in fighting in April, whatever, the public’s blame is shooting mainly to Fury.

In the meantime, Usyk (20-0, 13 KO) has three belts — WBA, IBF, and WBO — that will be due for mandatory defenses sooner or later. The WBA have Daniel Dubois waiting in the wings, the IBF have Filip Hrgovic, and the WBO have Joe Joyce, which seems the least likely to be next, because Joyce is slated to fight Zhilei Zhang on Apr. 15, and because Joyce may be a target for Fury.

Deontay Wilder is also in this mix. His team again say he’s ready to fight Usyk, and Fury has repeatedly expressed the possibility of a fourth fight between them in 2023.