Tyson Fury backed to cancel Oleksandr Usyk fight and take on Anthony Joshua instead Associated PressTyson Fury could be set to bail on his upcoming bout with Oleksandr Usyk and instead clear a path to take on Anthony Joshua in a fight that would have boxing fans around the world on the edge of their seats. That is the view of former WBA super-middleweight champion, George Groves. The 36-year-old, who went toe-to-toe with the likes of Carl Froch and Chris Eubank Jr before retiring in 2019, believes that the Gypsy King may not make it into the ring to fight Usyk on May 18. \u201cI\u2019ve said since the start \u2013 I\u2019ll believe it when I see it,\u201d Groves told Betway. \u201cI don\u2019t think Fury has ever fancied the Usyk fight. He\u2019s talking about having 10 more fights, but if he loses to Usyk how does that work? It\u2019s a massive risk for him to fight Usyk. He\u2019s probably really hoping that Usyk can\u2019t take a body shot.\u201d Fury was initially due to take on Usyk in February, but a freak accident suffered in sparring left him needing 11 stitches following a cut to his eye. Groves believes that the aftermath of that incident told him all he needed to know about Fury\u2019s intentions of stepping into the ring. \u201cWhen the fight got postponed after the cut, I wasn\u2019t surprised,\u201d he added. \u201cIt gave me the feeling that this fight will never happen\u2026 \u201cWe saw Eddie Hearn [Joshua\u2019s promoter] almost say that Joshua vs Fury trumps Fury vs Usyk after AJ beat [Francis] Ngannou. I thought to myself, I bet Fury would rather have a bit of Joshua than Usyk because he\u2019ll see that as an easier fight.\u201d Hearn has indeed pleaded with Fury to beat Usyk when the two meet next month. Joshua\u2019s promoter believes that a showdown between the two British giants would be one of the biggest fights in the history of the sport. Joshua beat Ngannou with a devastating knockout in the second round when the pair took to the ring in March, but Fury needed a split decision from the judges to seal victory over the same opponent when they fought last October. Groves believes that the different performance levels from the pair in their respective fights against Ngannou will have fans thinking that AJ can now beat Fury, something the latter will want to rectify the only way he can. \u201cPeople are starting to consider that AJ beats Fury after both of their performances against Ngannou,\u201d Groves said. \u201cIt would not be a surprise if Fury wants to set the record straight and fight Joshua next and leave Usyk out. \u201cUsyk is probably thinking \u2018I don\u2019t know if this guy is going to show up\u2019 because there\u2019s still a chance Fury pulls out.\u201d All the eyes of the boxing world are on Fury and Usyk ahead of their fight at the Kingdom Arena, Saudi Arabia, next month. Despite Fury being initially forced into postponing the first scheduled date for the fight, the WBC champion has reiterated his commitment that he will be touching gloves with Usyk \u201ccut eye or not\u201d. Fury\u2019s promoter, Frank Warren, has also warned his fighter that the Ukrainian will target the cut on his eye, despite backing him to get the job done over Usyk within 12 rounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tyson Fury backed to cancel Oleksandr Usyk fight and take on Anthony Joshua instead Associated PressTyson Fury could be set to bail on his upcoming bout with Oleksandr Usyk and instead clear a path to take on Anthony Joshua in a fight that would have boxing fans around the world on the edge of their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21732\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}