Heavyweight Boxing: Biggest showdown as Fury, Usyk test might today in Riyadh, experts predict

In what look like the biggest showdown in heavyweight boxing, British boxer, Tyson Fury and kranian counterpart, Oleksandr Usyk will meet in a winner-takes-all clash in a bid to become the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis in 1999.

Both fighters are still undefeated and unless a draw happens tonight, one of them will lose the undefeated status.

Fury defeated Deontay Wilder in a trilogy battle, to claim the WBC title, while Usyk holds the WBA, WBO, and IBO titles after defeating Anthony Joshua twice.

Will Fury become the undisputed boxing Champions or Usyk who recently joined the heavyweight category suprise the entire boxing world.

Carl Frampton (Former two-weight world champion)

“I fancy Fury. My mind hasn’t really swayed from start to finish, which is strange in a fight of this magnitude. I’ve been saying Fury from the start.

“I think Fury is in the zone now. He’s serious. He’s ready to fight.

“I feel like this fight we’re going to see a version of Fury that we haven’t seen for a long time. A hungry Fury. A Fury that can be beat if he doesn’t perform well, and he knows that.”So I feel like he’s going to be preparing the best he’s prepared in a long time to win this fight. He was confident he was going to win those last couple of fights.

“He knew his boxing IQ was better than a lot of those fighters that he’s been fighting. He relied on that. This one, he can’t rely on that natural ability, he needs to put in the hard work as well, and I feel like we’re going to see that.

“He proves himself time and time again, people keep underestimating him and he keeps proving them all wrong.

“So I’m very excited to watch this fight.”

Claressa Shields (Three-division women’s world champion)

“Usyk has to be one of the best heavyweights that I’ve seen, he beat Anthony Joshua twice. Tyson Fury is a man to be reckoned with. He beat Deontay Wilder three times, and is very gritty, very tall, very big, very skilled.

“It’s going to be very, very close, and it’s gonna come down to conditioning, focus and who can avoid the shots better. AJ was able to hurt Usyk but I wonder if Tyson will be able to hurt Usyk.

“I think that Tyson Fury has a different mentality than AJ and he’s going to come and lay that big body on Usyk and Usyk will have to use his skills he has coming from cruiserweight to see how he’ll deal with that.

“I look forward to seeing it and I think that it’s going to be a split decision for either guy. I don’t think nobody’s going to get knocked out or hurt or anything.

“I love Tyson Fury and he knows that, but I think Usyk will come out on top in a split decision, especially if it goes all the way because Usyk does know how to win the rounds.”

Joe Cordina (IBF super-featherweight world champion)

“Fury, eight to 12, stoppage. He’ll struggle with the footwork of Usyk for the first half, and then he’ll just think, ‘I’ve got to get on it now’, and the weight – the size – will all come into play, and if you’ve seen what [Daniel] Dubois did, body shot-wise to Usyk… Yeah it was on the belt, but, like someone said before, Floyd Mayweather did that for years and years, hit on the belt. What’s the difference?

Credit: TNG with additional info from Sky Sports