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WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury 31-0-1 (22) has unleashed on his rivals in boxing’s glamour division.
Englishman Fury, 33, claimed the green belt from Deontay Wilder 42-2-1 (41) with a seventh-round knockout two years ago and repeated the result with an 11th round stoppage in their rematch last October.
Fury was expected to face Anthony Joshua 24-2 (22) in the first ever four-belt unification bout before the 32-year-old Brit lost his WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight titles to Ukrainian southpaw and mandatory contender Oleksandr Usyk 19-0 (13) by unanimous decision last September.
The WBC has ordered Fury to defend his belt against mandatory challenger Dillian Whyte 28-2 (19) next in a bout that has been a longtime in the making. It is expected to take place on April 23 with London’s Wembley Stadium the front-runner to host the event.
Meanwhile, Joshua is expected to head straight into a rematch against Usyk in the hope of reversing his fortunes and breathing new life back into the Fury fight.
“You can only take who you can fight at the time,” Fury said to The National. “I’ve got Dillian Whyte next and then there’s a little sucker called Usyk who I’m going to absolutely set about rotten.”
Usyk, who fought as a middleweight in the amateurs, moved up to heavyweight in 2019 after conquering all in the major contenders in the cruiserweight division to unify the WBC, WBA, WBO and IBF 200-pound belts.
Although he hasn’t fought at middleweight since his amateur days, that didn’t stop Fury from mocking the 6-foot-3 unified world champion’s size.
“The middleweight. Send him packing. Send him back down to middleweight. That’s all I’m going to do,” Fury said.
“AJ’s a big old bodybuilder. He ain’t worth a carrot. I don’t want to hear how good Usyk is. Let him fight a real heavyweight. He fought an old journeyman in Derek Chisora and it was life and death.
“And then he fought a bodybuilder who’s not even a boxer and had a life-and-death [fight].
“Until he fights a real fighting man you can’t call him a champion. All roads lead to me; I’m the ‘Gypsy King’.
“If he can beat me I’d say he’s a good man. But if he can’t I’ll still say he’s useless.”
Usyk roundly outboxed Joshua at Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium last year to win by scores of 117-112, 115-113 and 116-112.
Fury expects a similar result the second time around.
“Usyk will beat him in the rematch. Yet again. Because AJ’s a bum, he can’t fight. He’s been exposed. He’s a cross-fit bum. And that’s all I want to say,” Fury said.
If Fury gets past Whyte as expected, a showdown with the winner of Usyk vs Joshua II would be a tasty proposition for fight fans after all the jawing that the WBC boss has done.
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